THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a suspected case of third-degree torture by the police, a 23-year-old cab driver was admitted to Thiruvananthapuram General hospital with a spine fracture. Sajith Babu, a resident of Nedumangad was taken into custody by Nedumangad Police on Thursday. The police suspect him of a motorcycle theft from Nedumangad on August 15.
According to Sajith’s relatives, he was hand-cuffed and subjected to third-degree torture for three hours.
“The police treated him as a criminal and assaulted him badly. The police stopped the torture only when he lost consciousness.” Relatives said that Sajith was later produced before the magistrate where the police said that Sajith was taken into custody while he was trying to steal a motorcycle.
However, Sajith refuted the police claims and told the magistrate that he was taken into custody only out of suspicion. Thus he was granted bail and admitted to the General hospital. “We have filed a petition with the Chief Minister’s office and DGP seeking action against the police,” said M Suresh, Sajith’s relative.
Allegations false
Meanwhile, V Rajesh Kumar, Station House Officer, Nedumangad told Express that the allegations against police were false. “There is no such instances of custodial torture. We are sure that he is the culprit as he had criminal antecedents and the CCTV visual reveal his face. We have arrested as per the procedure and produced before the magistrate. We have not adopted any third-degree measures on him and we have also subjected him to a medical examination. Anyone can see the medical reports. So this news is absolutely false,” he said.