Malappuram: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday arrested four police officers in connection with the alleged custodial murder of Thamir Jifri, a 30-year-old resident of Tanur in Malappuram.
Jifri died while in the custody of the Tanur police last year.
The post-mortem examination of Jifri's body showed that he sustained injuries as a result of physical assault inflicted by members of the District Anti-Narcotic Special Action Force (DANSAF) squad operating under the jurisdiction of the Tanur sub-division of the Malappuram police.
The DANSAF team allegedly handed over the 30-year-old to the Tanur police after physically assaulting him.
The arrested individuals are senior civil police officer Ginesh, 37, of Pallikkal, Malappuram; civil police officer (CPO) Alvin Augustine, 36, of Neendakara, Kollam; CPO Abhimanyu, 35, of Thamarakulam, Malappuram; and CPO Vipin, 38, of Vallikunnu, Malappuram. All of them were part of the DANSAF squad.
Earlier, the FIR registered by the CBI accused the four DANSAF members of murder. The arrests were made after a detailed investigation into the matter.
The CBI took over the case from the Kerala Crime Branch following a directive from the Kerala High Court. The High Court instructed the Crime Branch to hand over the case diary and other related records to the CBI after considering a petition from Jifri's family. The family members informed the court that they would not receive justice if the police department investigated the case against police involving police officials.