In an arguably singular development, the Crime Branch (CB) has indicted three Indian Forest Service (IFS) officials for custodial torture.
It has charged them with wrongfully confining and grievously injuring an ivory poaching case suspect to extort a confession and compel restoration of wildlife trophies.
The agency has booked them under section 330, 331 and 348 of the IPC. The offence entails a punishment of up to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and fine.
This interrogation
The CB case related to the interrogation of one Aji Bright, 34, at the forest headquarters here in July 2015 as part of the Department’s sweeping investigation into the sensational killing of wild elephants for their tusks in Idamalayar in Muvattupuzha forest division. It also brings into sharp focus the continued use of third degree to solve crimes.
The CB has sought court sanction to conduct a test identification parade to single out others complicit in the crime. At least ten other forest enforcers were under its scanner.
The alleged torture came to light when prison authorities in Muvattupuzha refused to admit Bright after a forest court in Kothamangalam remanded him in judicial custody.
Jailors found Bright to be in terrible pain and insisted that he be hospitalised. Doctors discovered he had three fractured ribs and a broken shoulder bone. Their injury report reflected Bright’s version that the accused had repeatedly beaten him with a cloth-covered iron-rod to extract a confession.
The CB found several inconsistencies in the Forest Department’s records regarding Bright’s arrest. The Forest enforcers had told the court that they had arrested Bright on July 12 from Sreekariyam.
The CB found that Bright had indeed surrendered at Sreekariyam police station on July 10. The same day an IFS officer had taken custody of Bright after duly signing on a police register. The CB has taken the sample signature of the officer and forensically matched it with that found on the station register.
The forest enforcers had told the CB that Bright, when produced before the magistrate had explicitly, said he had no complaint against them. They alleged the torture charge was a ploy to derail the elephant poaching case.
IG S. Sreejith and SP Prasanthan Kani are investigating the case.
