THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The district crime branch has taken over the investigation into the death of a 48-year-old Nepali national in police custody who was arrested in connection with a theft at Hariharapuram near Varkala. Ram Kumar, a native of Lamki Chuha in Kaikali district, Nepal, collapsed to death while being produced before the magistrate on Thursday evening.
The state police decided to hand over the case from Ayiroor police to the district crime branch on Friday as the accused died in police custody. The case will be investigated by a team led by crime branch DySP B Anilkumar.
There are also reports that Kumar was beaten up badly by the local people who had apprehended him near the house where he and four others committed robbery on Tuesday night. Kumar had complained to the doctor, who had conducted a medical examination before being produced before the magistrate, about being beaten up. Sources, however, could not confirm whether he had mentioned being beaten up by the police officers or the local people.
“All these will be considered during the investigation. We will verify whether he was assaulted by the local people or the police. The postmortem examination report could not reveal the exact reason for the death. So a detailed autopsy is needed, and that will be revealed soon. Based on the report, we will probe it further,” said a senior police official of the district crime branch.
Meanwhile, the investigation into the robbery has reached nowhere. Besides Kumar, only one more person was arrested. The police said more people, including a woman, are still at large.
The five-member Nepali gang, including a woman who was working as a maid at the house, committed the robbery on Tuesday night. The police suspect that the housemaid gave drug-laced food to Sreedevi Amma, her daughter-in-law Deepa, and home nurse Sindhu.
The group then entered the house of Sreedevi and decamped with an undisclosed quantity of gold and Rs 30,000 in cash. Two of the team members, Janak Sha, 42, and Ram Kumar, were caught by the local people and handed over to the Ayiroor police.
The police have not been able to verify the name of the woman who worked as the maid at Sreedevi Amma’s house. One of the arrested, however, told the officers that her name is Sohila. She began working at Sreedevi’s house 15 days ago.
Police sources said she could have been instructed by one of the men, who is on the run, to take up work as a maid to carry out the robbery.
The incident came to light when Sreedevi’s son, who works in Bengaluru, failed to get either his mother or wife on the phone. Whenever he tried, the calls were abruptly cancelled from the other end. Sensing danger, he alerted a relative residing in the neighbourhood. When the person arrived to check on the situation by 11 pm, he saw a group of people fleeing the house. He immediately alerted the neighbours and they rounded up two of the suspects. Kumar was found hiding on the house premises, while Sha was found entangled in a barbed wire mesh.
