Rajkumar, 49, allegedly died due to police torture late last week.
New Delhi: Barely a year after the custodial death of 26-year-old Sreejith, arrested on mistaken identity in Varapuzha, off Kochi, in central Kerala, another died while in judicial custody, allegedly due to police torture late last week. This is the fifth custodial death in the Left-ruled state in the last three years.
Rajkumar, 49, who was taken into custody by Nedumkandam police on 12 June in connection with a financial fraud case, had died on 21 June in Peerumedu sub-jail in Idukki district. According to eyewitnesses, Kumar was already dead when the police took him to hospital. The initial post-mortem report has revealed that Rajkumar had suffered serious injuries; his backbone was broken and had at least 32 wounds on both legs below the knee. It is alleged that policemen in boots stood over Kumar’s legs while their colleagues “interrogated” him.
By Wednesday, four officials of the Nedumkandam police station have been suspended and eight others transferred and a Crime Branch special team has started investigation into the incident. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who also holds the Home portfolio, told the state Assembly that “there was something suspicious” about the incident. He did not elaborate on it, though the Opposition has alleged “police-ruling CPM” clique behind Kumar’s death and a move to hush up the case. Leader of Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala, while holding the government responsible for the death, said the maximum number of custodial death happened during the period of the Pinarayi Vijayan government. “It is unfortunate that I have to respond on custodial torture on a day we are observing the 44th anniversary of the Emergency,” Vijayan, who was in police custody during that period, responded. The Opposition was not impressed and they have every reason not to be.
As in the other four cases of custody deaths after the Left Front came to power, Kumar’s death is also shrouded in mystery. In the case of earlier incidents, though every evidence points to police high-handedness, their political masters come to the rescue of the force. This is all the more while the Left is in power as it is a well known secret that CPM cadre interferes in the day-to-day working of the force. Take the case of Sreejith who was arrested by the Varapuzha police on 7 April 2018 over suspected involvement in a case of abetting the suicide of a 54-year-old man. In fact, Sreejith was mistaken for another person who was involved in assaulting the dead man. Sreejith was hauled up from sleep from his home by policemen in civil clothes without any valid warrant. They assaulted him in front of his mother, and taken straight to the Varapuzha police station. However, the next morning he was taken to a private hospital on 9 April and passed away due to abdominal injuries. While in the police station, his mother was denied permission to meet Sreejith. His family as well as the state Human Rights Commission have raised suspicions that Sreejith died due to torture.
That time too, a few policemen were suspended pending a high-level inquiry. Though there has been a hue and cry over the composition of the inquiry team as it comprised men belonging to the same police station, the government went ahead with it. One year on, though the investigation has been completed, police are yet to file a charge sheet in the case. Meanwhile, the suspended seven policemen have all been reinstated, a few with promotions. At the time of the incident, it was reported that some local CPM leaders were involved in the case. This was simply not followed up. Though it was a clear case of mistaken identity, and his family needed an apology from the state, the Chief Minister refused to visit Sreejith’s house despite passing by the area a couple of times. Instead, the state offered Sreejith’s family Rs 10lakh compensation and a government job to his wife!
All this happened while a communist party, CPM, which claims to be different from other political parties, was in power. The victim families now know there is no difference. Politicisation of the police force is a bane in Kerala, but this becomes an open affair whenever the Left comes to power. There has been an instance when officers attended a government function in red uniform while Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the DGP of the state, Loknath Behera, were present at the podium. No action was taken against those officers. In fact, there has been a sharp rise in political killings after Behera, who is said to be close to the CPM leadership, took over as police chief. The Opposition has termed him the most ineffectual police officer the state has ever had. But his political masters cannot wash their hands off.
Much of what is happening in the state and its police force is due to the lack of an effective Opposition. The Congress, which won a thumping victory in the recent general election, seldom takes up issues that affect the common man. The party’s victory was more by default as people did not have any other option to express their anger against the present government. The BJP, on the other hand, seems to be non-existent in the state, except when it comes to matters concerning temples. In the process, a government and its police force get away with the murder of its own citizens time and again.