A little over eight months after their suspension in connection with the alleged custodial death of S.R. Sreejith of Varapuzha, all seven police officers have been reinstated into service.
Vijay S. Sakhare, Inspector General of Police (IGP) (Kochi Range), issued an order on Wednesday reinstating Chrispin Sam, circle inspector; Deepak, sub inspector; Jayanandan, additional sub inspector; Sudheer, grade sub inspector; Santhosh Baby, senior civil police officer; and Sreeraj and E.B. Sunilkumar, civil police officers. They were suspended following orders issued by the IGP (Kochi Range) on April 12 and by the District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) on May 22 this year.
The order cited the report of the S. Sreejith, Inspector General of Police (Crime Branch) and head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Varapuzha custodial death, for reinstating the suspended cops.
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According to the order, the SIT head reported that “the investigation of the crime case registered against the aforesaid police officers had almost completed and their reinstatement into service would not hamper the investigation process in any manner and had also requested to reinstate them into service without prejudice to the department action pending against them.”
Mr. Sam has been directed to report at the police headquarters and the rest before the District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) for posting orders.
The then District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural), A.V. George, who was initially transferred before being placed under suspension had already been reinstated.
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The 29-year-old Sreejith died following alleged custodial torture on April 9. In his dying declaration Sreejith disclosed that he was assaulted by two unidentifiable officers in civil clothes at 8.30 p.m. on April 6 and was then taken straight to the Varapuzha police station.
The statement was given to a medical officer handling medico-legal cases at a private hospital in the city where he was admitted with serious injuries on the morning of April 8 with alleged history of assault-sustained jejunal perforation and pneumoperitoneum.
Shortly after the tragedy, the Rural Tiger Force whose members had picked up the victim was dismantled. The squad was constituted unofficially and was an informal arrangement by the then district police chief (Ernakulam Rural) to put brakes on the goonda menace and narcotic problems in the district.
The State government had given a compensation of ₹10 lakh to Sreejith’s family and a government job to his wife.