Aryananda turned five last month.
This was her first birthday without her father S.R. Sreejith, who fell victim to alleged custodial torture at the Varapuzha police station on April 9 last year.
Till recently, she used to believe that her father will return one day. But with the fifth birthday dawned the realisation that he will not, ever.
“We made sure that she made peace with that reality at the earliest. Now she wants to become a police officer and take on all those cops responsible for the death of her father,” says 57-year-old Shyamala, Sreejith’s mother.
She still remembers the night her 29-year-old son, who was sleeping on the verandah of her house, was picked up by plainclothesmen. It later emerged that they were members of the Rural Tiger Force, a special squad raised by the then District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) A.V. George. That squad was later disbanded and Mr. George was suspended for a brief period before being reinstated.
Sreejith was among the nine youngsters rounded up for their alleged involvement in breaking into the house of one Vasudevan, a resident of Devaswompadam, eventually resulting in the suicide of the house owner.
What ensued was over 48 hours of alleged custodial torture at the end of which Sreejith died on April 9 evening. A day later, the case was handed over to a Crime Branch Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the then IGP S. Sreejith.
Dying declaration
In his dying declaration, Sreejith disclosed that he was assaulted by two unidentifiable officers in civil clothes on April 6 and the medical report also pointed at assault-sustained injuries .
As the case rocked the State, the SIT arraigned not less than ten police personnel, including the then Varapuzha sub-inspector, as accused. They were suspended from service.
However, a little over eight months later almost all of them were reinstated into service by Inspector General of Police (Ernakulam Range) Vijay Sakhare citing a report of SIT head Mr. Sreejith.
“They are trying to protect the accused police officers and even the charge sheet has not been filed yet,” Ms. Shyamala said.
Akhila Sreejith, wife of the deceased, said with the High Court and the Supreme Court turning down their petitions for a CBI inquiry in the case they have no other alternative but to rely on the ongoing probe. “We are in touch with the officials on a weekly basis who keep on asking us to be patient saying this is an unprecedented case involving so many policemen,” she said.
Meanwhile, SIT sources said the investigation was over and the process of appointing a public prosecutor of the choice of the victim’s family was under way.
