THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI is likely to begin investigation into the alleged custodial death of Sreejeev at Parassala police station in 2014, on Wednesday. A notification in this regard was issued on Tuesday. The Thiruvananthapuram unit of CBI will take up the probe and, sources said, is likely to register an FIR on Wednesday. However, Sreejeev’s elder brother Sreejith, who has been protesting in front of the Secretariat for over 700 days demanding justice for his brother, said he will conclude his protest only after getting clarity about the probe.
Sreejith has been demanding the government announce a CBI probe into the mysterious death of his brother and had also sought action against accused police officers. Though the government had approached CBI last year, the latter refused to take up the case saying it did not come under the ‘rarest of the rare’ category.
On January 19, the government asked Sreejith to end his protest, with M V Jayarajan, the private secretary to the Chief Minister, handing over a copy of the Centre’s order for a CBI inquiry into the case.
However, Sreejith refused to end the protest saying he would do so once CBI begins the probe.
Last week, the state government had conceded to Sreejith’s demands that the Centre be asked to order a CBI inquiry and to take steps to vacate the High Court’s stay on proceedings against the police personnel allegedly involved in the case.
The HC had stayed the proceedings of the State Police Complaints authority’s findings which said three policemen were responsible for Sreejeev’s death. The DGP had ordered a probe into the complaint by Sreejith’s mother that the accused policemen tried to harass her whenever she stepped out of her residence. Sreejith’s protest had recently garnered social media’s attention and youngsters had taken up the issue by staging a protest march in front of the Secretariat.
This uprising forced the authorities to take action on Sreejith’s demands.
Sreejith had launched his indefinite strike in 2015 demanding justice for Sreejeev who died in police custody at the Parassala police station on May 21, 2014.
Sreejeev was taken into custody on charges of mobile phone theft.
Though the police claimed he committed suicide by consuming poison due to a love failure, Sreejeev’s family did not believe the claim and demanded a thorough investigation.