In a landmark step, the State government has directed the State Police Chief to constitute a special team to probe the murder of 27-year-old Sreejeev under custody of the Parassala police and pay the victim’s kin a token compensation of Rs.10 lakh.
Additional Chief Secretary Nalini Netto, through a Government Order dated September 3, directed the State Police Chief to probe the case further by placing the accused police officers under suspension and realise the amount of compensation from them.
The step is in compliance with the recommendations by the Kerala State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA), which had earlier carried out an independent investigation and confirmed custodial violence as the cause of Sreejeev’s death.
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The SPCA probe revealed that Sreejeev, who had been taken into police custody on May 19, 2014, was brutally tortured by Circle Inspector Gopakumar and ASI Philippose with the support of Civil Police Officers Vijayadas and Prathapachandran. It also revealed that the mahassar prepared by Sub Inspector D. Biju Kumar was factually incorrect and misleading.
During a hearing in May last, the SPCA recommended constitution of a Special Investigation Team to probe the case and file a charge sheet against the delinquent officers. It further asked the State Police Chief to depute a Superintendent of Police-ranked officer to discuss the modalities to be followed with the residuary investigation.
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The SPCA had found that the real motive behind Sreejeev’s arrest was to keep him away from his girl friend’s marriage at the behest of her father. The probe revealed that he had been blindly administered a total dose of 230 mg of atropine at the Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram.
The SPCA also verified the suicide note allegedly recovered by the police from the victim’s room at a lodge in Attingal with graphologists and termed it part of a desperate attempt by the police to make it appear that the victim had committed suicide.