KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed the CBI to take over the probe into the custodial death of Neyyattinkara native Sreejeev as soon as possible. The CBI also expressed its willingness to take over the case and said the process for the same was progressing. The court directive came after the Centre’s submission that it had issued a notification transferring the case to CBI.
Recording the submissions, the court disposed of the petition filed by Ramani Prameela, Sreejeev’s mother, seeking CBI probe into her 27-year-old son’s death on May 21, 2014. In the petition, Prameela alleged the present investigation was not on right track. Sreejeev was taken into custody on May 19, 2014, by then Parassala CI Gopakumar, then SI Biju Kumar and then ASI Philipose. As per the cops’ version, Sreejeev died due to the consumption of Furadan, a highly-toxic insecticide. They also relied their findings on a suicide note.
“However, the Kerala State Police Complaint Authority found Sreejeev’s died due to custodial torture. Though the government issued a notification consenting to transfer the case to CBI, it took a negative stand saying the incident could not be considered as rarest of the rare cases which warranted a CBI probe,” the petition said.