Custodial Death: Govt Ordered to Pay Compensation to Kin

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) on Thursday ordered the government to pay `2 lakh compensation to the family of a person who died in police custody at Medical College.

The rights panel directed the State Police Chief and head of the Prisons Department to file a procedure report to the Commission after issuing the amount to the family of the deceased Subhash Babu.

An official statement issued by the Commission clarified that if any police official is held guilty for the death of a detainee, the order shall not curtail any action on the officer. The statement further clarified that such an action would not restrict compensation to the complainant Vineetha, the wife of the deceased.

Sub Inspector of police at Thiruvallam police station took Subhash into custody on April 7, 2014. He was arrested on the basis of a statement by Sivaprasad of Poonkulam who alleged that foreign liquor seized from him by police belonged to Subhash. He was presented at a court in Neyyattinkara, and remanded to the Neyyattinkara sub-jail.

Vineetha, in her complaint to the rights panel, said that Subhash was found cruelly manhandled by police when she had gone to meet him at the sub-jail on the second day of his remand. She added in the complaint that she had bought him new clothes instead of the blood-stained clothes.

Later on April 11, the jail authorities admitted Subhash to Medical College Hospital, and Vineetha was not allowed to see him. On April 12, Vineetha reached the hospital after receiving a text message regarding his critical stage, to see his corpse, added the complaint.