THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/KOCHI: One of the convicts in the Kevin murder case was admitted to the Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday after he was allegedly tortured by prison staff in Poojapura Central Prison.
Tittu Gerome, the ninth accused in the sensational case, was hospitalised after District Judge N Seshadrinathan and a medical team visited the inmate and took note of his physical condition. The incident of torture of the prison inmate came to light just a day after Justice K Narayana Kurup submitted his report on Nedumkandam custodial murder to the chief minister.
A 49-year-old man had died in Nedumkandam station owing to police’s horrendous custodial torture and the barbarity of the crime was clearly depicted in the report. In Tittu’s case, the judge and the medical team visited him at jail on the order of the Kerala High Court on Friday which considering a habeas corpus petition moved by his parents Jerome Kochukutty and Valsamma.
The parents had moved the petition alleging that their son, who is serving life imprisonment, was being subjected to inhumane torture by the prison staff. Though they visited the jail based on the information, the jail authorities denied them permission to meet him.
The medical team recorded the injury marks on his body and reported that Tittu had likely sustained renal injuries. As the matter was conveyed to the High Court, the division bench comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and M R Anitha ordered that Tittu be moved to the Medical College Hospital.
The court also ordered a probe into the incident either by the ADGP (Prisons) or a police officer not below the rank of DIG. The court also directed the probe officers to submit an interim report to the Additional District Judge II on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a senior prisons department official claimed that the complaint against the prison staff was bogus. “The convict was recently caught bringing alcohol from outside when he returned from an outside job. As a punishment, he was kept in solitary confinement. The complaint was moved against the staff as a retaliation,” said South Zone DIG (Prisons) P Ajayakumar.