THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: July 25 will go down in the annals of Kerala Police as its darkest day. For the first time in independent India’s history, police officers have been sentenced to death in a custodial murder case, in a state which claims to be highly progressive.
The CBI Special Court judgement awarding death sentence to two police officers for the custodial murder of Udayakumar in 2005 has come at a time when two more similar cases — of Varapuzha Sreejith and Puthenveettil Sreejiv — are hanging like the Sword of Damocles over the state police’s head.
K Jithakumar and S V Sreekumar, the first and second accused respectively, were handed out the capital punishment by judge J Nazer. The pair was also awarded a fine of `2 lakh each.
Former cops T K Haridas and E K Sabu and Crime Branch DYSP T Ajith Kumar were given three-year jail term for conspiracy and destroying evidence.
Jithakumar, now additional sub-inspector with the District Crime Records Bureau, and Sreekumar, a senior civil police officer with the Narcotic Cell, took Udayakumar into the Fort Police station custody on September 27, 2005.
Udayakumar was apprehended when he was sitting in a park at Sreekandeswaram along with another person Suresh Kumar, who had several petty cases against him. The police suspected them to be thieves when they found `4,500 that was in Udayakumar’s possession.
Give it to CBI...
Kerala has been witnessing a rise in petitions being filed in the High Court seeking CBI probes. Following are some of the sensational ones.
Focus shifts to Sreejiv’s death
In the wake of the Udayakumar case coming to its logical conclusion with the conviction of the police personnel involved in the crime, the focus will now shift to the sensational Puthenveettil Sreejiv custodial death case, which is being probed by the CBI.