THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI Special Court on Wednesday awarded death sentence to two policemen in the custodial murder of Udaya Kumar, a 27-year-old, at Fort Police station here, on September 27, 2005.
K Jithukumar and S V Sreekumar, who were given the death sentence, are the first and the second accused in the case, where a total of six policemen are involved.
CBI special court judge J Nasser pronounced the verdict. The two took Udaya Kumar and his friend Suresh Kumar to the station from a park in the city, were found guilty of murder while T Ajith Kumar (then SI), E K Sabu (then CI) and T K Haridas (then Assistant Commissioner) were found guilty of fabricating evidences and hatching conspiracy.
The other three policemen have been given a jail sentence for a term of 3-5 years. The third accused, Soman, who was an additional SI at the time of murder, died during the trial.
The case
Udaya Kumar and Suresh were whiling away time at Sreekandeshwaram Park when constables Jithukumar and Sreekumar apprehended them after they found Rs. 4,500 in his pocket. Suspecting that the cash was stolen, the policemen took them to the Fort Station for interrogation. The duo was subjected to brutal third-degree treatment in a bid to extract confession from them.
Udaya Kumar was also subjected to ‘Uruttal’ — a colloquial term used to mention the torture method where the lower limbs are crushed using a heavy wooden pestle, something that was widely used on naxal sympathisers in Kerala during the Emergency.
Prabhavati gets justice after 13 long years
It was the steadfastness exhibited by Prabhavati Amma, mother of Udaya Kumar, which brought the culprits to the dock. Udaya Kumar was her only child and the pangs of his death never went away.
On the morning before he went out, Udaya Kumar had promised his mother that he would be back soon. A promise that was never fulfilled.
On Tuesday, Prabhavati said, “It was his body that came back to me. After his death, I haven’t slept for the past 13 years,” she said before breaking down into tears. “I wanted to provide my son justice so that when I meet him hereafter, I could tell that I have done enough for him.”.
Prabhavati added that mothers who had gone through similar experiences should come out and fight against the police brutality.
“Had mothers come out against the brutality earlier, such cases wouldn’t have repeated. No other mothers and children should go through such an experience again,” she said.