KOCHI: The Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court acquitted five police officers who were accused in the sensational Thangal Kunju custodial death case that took place in Alappuzha. Sub-Inspector John Varghese, constables V C Pradeep Kumar, M Pradeep Kumar, P V Subash and Gopinathan Prabhu were acquitted by the court as the prosecution failed to successfully defend the case.
The case was first probed by the Crime Branch and later it was transferred to the CBI. The Kerala High Court later ordered not to frame charge for the offence under IPC section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against the policemen. The accused were charged with offences under sections 220, 323, 324, 325, 447, 451, 466, 304 and 509 of the IPC.
The accused persons, who were attached to Alappuzha South Police Station, on August 8, 1998, barged into the house of Thangal Kunju, a retired employee of Public Relations Department, Kerala government. The post-mortem report established that Thangal Kunju did not sustain any fatal injury and the cause of death was due to occlusive coronary heart disease and not the injuries sustained.