KOCHI: Relatives of S R Sreejith, the victim in the Varapuzha custodial death case, on Tuesday identified the three civil police officers who had taken Sreejith into custody.
Officers privy to the probe said Sreejith's wife identified the accused – Jithin Raj, Sumesh and Santosh Kumar – during an identification parade at Kakkanad district jail. The police officers, who were members of the disbanded Rural Tiger Force (RTF), were paraded with 14 other persons. Sreejith’s brother Sajith, mother Shyamala and neighbour Ajith also identified the accused. The one-hour parade was held in the presence of the Aluva Judicial First Class Magistrate Reno Francis Xavier.
All four accused, including Varapuzha SI G S Deepak, are in judicial custody at the district jail.
The identification parade was held five days after a video clip of the ex-RTF personnel started doing the rounds on social media, few hours before their arrest. In the clip, the accused officers had alleged they were made scapegoats and had requested the intervention of the Chief Minister and the State Police Chief.
Medical board final report soon
The cops said the medical board constituted to ascertain the actual cause of Sreejith's death was expected to hand over its final report soon. The postmortem report said Sreejith died was due to blunt abdominal trauma and related complications. Meanwhile, the special investigation team probing the case related to the attack on the house of C M Vasudevan and his subsequent suicide is yet to arrest Vipin, Vinju, Thulasidas and Ajith, the first, second, third and sixth accused, who are absconding since April 6.
Co-accused alleges brutal torture
Putting the police in another fix, the co-accused who were released on bail in the case related to the attack on Vasudevan's house, told mediapersons in Varapuzha they were subjected to brutal assault inside the lock-up of the Varapuzha police station by SI G S Deepak for several hours.
“Though Sreejith cried inside the lock-up following severe abdominal pain, the police officers were reluctant to take him to a hospital. Sreejith was lying on the floor due to the uneasiness,” they said.
Sajith alleged the ex-RTF personnel also manhandled them inside the police vehicle while they were being taken to the Varapuzha police station. “At the station, other police officers present there also beat Sreejith up. The SI kicked him several times,” Sajith said.
Earlier, the probe team had found at least seven of the nine persons arrested by the Varapuzha police had not been present at the spot when Vasudevan's house was attacked. Following this, the court had granted bail to all the nine persons.