More than 72 hours after Sreejith died under police custody, Sajith is yet to recover from the shock of losing his brother.
“It was around 10.30 p.m. and Sreejith was sleeping in the portico while I was in my bedroom when a few persons claiming to be policemen showed up at our doorstep. Before we could ask anything, they held us forcibly and dragged outside the home towards a vehicle parked outside,” he recalled.
Sreejith and Sajith were arrested by a special squad under the District Police Chief, Ernakulam Rural, on Friday for their alleged involvement in an attack on a house in the locality earlier that day. “While I was spared from much of the brutal assault, Sreejith sought to resist their move and received brutal blows all over his body,” Sajith said. The assault continued even after we reached the station. “Sreejith must have sustained some serious injury in the abdomen. He complained of unbearable pain in his stomach but Sub Inspector Deepak was unrelenting and continued to assault him for several hours,” he said.
According to Sajith, Sreejith was about to celebrate his fifth wedding anniversary on Wednesday.
Shyamala, Sreejith’s mother, is yet to come to grip with the reality. “They did not even let me see him once and even abused me when I tried to give him a drop of water. Even though he remained in a critical condition at the station for several hours, they did not even think of shifting him to a hospital despite repeated requests,” she alleged.
Sreejith’s neighbours also said that the police team had brutally assaulted the youth while taking him into custody. “He was literally thrown into the police vehicle before being kicked and beaten all over,” said one of the neighbours.
