The Kerala High Court has directed the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), South Zone, to undertake a comprehensive and dispassionate examination of the investigation conducted by the local police and the Crime Branch into the suspicious death of an engineering student in 2006 at Muvattupuzha and file a report whether any further investigation or action would be required.
The directive was passed while disposing of a writ petition filed by the parents of the student, T.E. Thomas and his wife, residents of Thrikkakara, seeking a CBI investigation in the case. Their son, Dennis Mathew, an engineering student, was found dead in suspicious circumstances by his friends in the wee hours of February 12, 2006, in a well at Muvattupuzha.
The Crime Branch had concluded that he had died of asphyxia due to drowning. The final report of the Crime Branch said that Dennis, who was drunk, had accidentally fallen into the well. The petitioners suspected that he was murdered by someone.
According to the petitioners, the version of the police was unbelievable. They said that the post mortem report had mentioned no presence of alcohol in his body. The possibility of a man accidentally falling into the well could be ruled out, considering the height of the protection wall of the well and the iron mesh placed over it. The police had concluded that that Dennis had fallen into the well, piercing a thick iron mesh. However, no injuries caused by the iron mesh were found on his body, the petitioners said. Nor was there any mention about the traces of blood on the iron mesh. Besides, the chemical analysis report did not mention a bloodstained stone which the police reportedly recovered from the well near the body. These flaws were made deliberately to allow the culprits to go scot fee, the petitioners alleged.
The court said that even if a CBI inquiry was ordered as pleaded by the petitioners, it would not provide them any succour since the CBI would be guided by the police reports. Moreover, the possibility of gathering any further evidence appeared to be extremely bleak.
The court directed the ADGP to complete the exercise before May 31.
