THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sreejith’s brother Sreejeev was taken into custody by Parassala police on allegations of mobile theft. Sreejeev was later shifted to the Medical College Hospital citing ingestion of poison and died on May 21, 2014.
Sreejith maintains that a fake case was registered against his brother following his relationship with a girl, who was a relative of one of the policemen. Following a complaint with the State Police Complaints Authority, the Authority filed a report stating the death was from custodial torture.
The family received a compensation of Rs 10 lakh. But Sreejith has been protesting seeking a CBI inquiry.
The government later decided to hand over the investigation to the CBI and issued a notification towards this end.
But the CBI declined to take up the case citing heavy workload and that the case does not come under the rarest of rare category.
Mass movement
For the past few days, social media was abuzz with the plight of Sreejith and several hashtags were trending in his support. However, unlike other cases when protests were contained within social media, Sreejith’s case snowballed into a movement which overflowed with all its fury onto the streets. Protestors arrived wearing black t-shirts and blue jeans, holding placards. The agitation drawn up by the many groups in social media saw huge participation as they rallied for CBI inquiry. Although traffic was momentarily affected, the leaders intervened to sort it out.