Inspector General of Police Tomin J. Thachankary, against whom the Alappuzha Chief Judicial Magistrate had issued a non-bailable warrant on Friday, appeared before the court on Saturday.
Mr. Thachankary, the first accused in a custodial torture case, appeared before the court about 12 p.m. and submitted a bail plea, following which CJM P. Ragini recalled the NBW granted him bail. The IGP was asked to produce two solvent sureties of Rs.50,000 each and to remit a cash security of Rs.10,000 apart from being directed to appear before the court on October 7, when the charge-sheet in the case will be read out.
The NBW was issued against Mr. Thachankary on Friday after he failed to appear before the court. He submitted on Saturday that he was unable to make it to the court owing to ill-health.
Mr. Thachankary, along with seven other police officers, faces charges of falsely implicating a person in a murder case and torturing him in custody. The episode is in connection with a case registered against Prakashan, a resident of Punnapra, which was booked by Mr. Thachankary when he was Assistant Superintendent of Police, Alappuzha in 1991.
Mr. Thachankary allegedly altered a suicide case into that of murder and accused Mr. Prakashan of being the culprit, after which he took Mr. Prakashan into custody and allegedly tortured him to confess of the crime.
Mr. Prakashan was released after a public action council intervened. A consequent Crime Branch enquiry found that the murder case was false and that Mr. Prakashan was innocent of the crimes he was charged with.
