DGP Loknath Behera has confirmed that serious action will be taken against the officials from the ominous Nedumkandam police station responsible for the death of a prisoner in custody.
He was responding to a remand report which confirmed that remand prisoner Kumar, who died in police custody at Peermade sub-jail in Kerala's Idukki district on June 21, was subjected to the notorious custodial torture.
The remand report of the fourth accused in the case confirms that the injuries sustained by Kumar during the brutal assault resulted in his death.
The action will be based on the interim report submitted by the investigation team.
The Police Complaint Authority Chairman visited the Nedumkandam station to probe the matter further. A team consisting of Retired Justice V K Mohanan conducted the examination. The team examined the documents in the station following a complaint registered by MLA PT Thomas.
A notorious police station
It has come to light that at least 20 officers, including sub-inspectors (SI) and circle inspectors from the Nedumkandam station, have faced action in the past one year. At least 10 others were suspended.
First, an SI was suspended after seven days of taking charge for asking SFI activists to smudge a picture of Che Guevara drawn on the road. The officer who came next was transferred in 18 days for holding up a three-year-old child and her father in the police station for three hours.
An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) faced action when he added the attempt-to-murder charge in a freak accident involving the vehicle of minister M.M. Mani.
A CI and and ASI were moved out for reportedly taking a bribe of Rs. one lakh for doing the ‘favour’ of not converting a suicide case into a murder.
Now, the Nedumkandam custodial torture and death case has seen the transfer of 13 officers, including the SI.
Unconfirmed reports said the superintendent of police, Idukki, may also be removed from the post.
SI, police driver confesses to crime
The sub-inspector (SI) and police driver, now in custody of the crime branch special team investigating the Nedumkandam custodial death case, have reportedly confessed to the crime.
Sources said the men, who initially denied any involvement, found their defences crumbling when the investigators stuck to pointed, fact-based questioning backed by a range of evidence.
The crime branch registered their arrest in two hours after them being taken into custody. Sources said the duo confessed to have assaulted and tortured the detainee, Raj Kumar. (Kumar was taken into custody on June 12 and he died four days after this).
The SI and the driver said they had ‘no intention’ of killing Kumar and it was ‘an unintended act.’ They said they questioned Kumar, a financial fraud accused, to find where he had stashed the money collected from unsuspecting customers of his finance firm.
The Nedumkandam SI who was under treatment at the Kottayam Medical College Hospital ICU has been remanded. The doctors treating SI K A Sabu confirmed to the magistrate that he does not have any heart related ailments. The magistrate completed the proceedings after visiting the medical college hospital.
Sabu will be shifted to the Peermade jail at the earliest.
Arrested SI Sabu has given a statement that Kumar was kept in custody under the instruction of SP K B Venugopal. When the SP was informed about the evidence collection and non-discovery of cash, he instructed them to keep Kumar in the custody and continue the interrogation.
The SP committed to intimate the DySP about the same, SI Sabu said in his statement.
More assault
The CB team also recorded the statement of a policeman and a co-detainee that Kumar was subjected to ‘nada adi,’ brutal initiation ritual, at the Peerumade sub-jail when the police took him there. The statement said Kumar, too weak to sign the jail register, was foul-mouthed by the head warden who was in an inebriated state.
‘Public did not manhandle Kumar’
Manju, third accused in the financial fraud case, said the people of the locality had not manhandled Kumar. She said he was healthy when the police took him into custody from his firm, Haritha Finance. She was a manager there. She said Kumar; Salini, another employee and co-accused; and herself were taken into custody on June 12.
Manju and Salini were assaulted by women constables on the ground floor of the Nedumkandam police station while Kumar was taken to the first floor.
She said the police took Kumar to Wagamon at 10:30 pm and he looked famished on return.
Financial dealings
Manju said 110 self-hep groups had remitted a service charge at Haritha Finance. The police seized all the documents. The daily collection touched Rs. 25000. Kumar used to take this amount to one Raju in Kumily on his car.
She said, Kumar had told her that Raju would take the cash to a Malappuram-based lawyer who was the owner of the firm. She told the investigators that she had never see the ‘owner.’ She said Kumar had deposited Rs. 4.63 crore in a bank at Kuttikanam. But she came to know that there was no money only when they reached the place with the depositors. The police had seized Rs. 72000 from Kumar and Rs. 2.30 lakh from Salini. Manju said she had was not connected to the financial dealings of the firm and was being wrongly indicted.
Salini goes missing
The police have launched a search to locate Salini who left the Peerumade sub-jail on bail. The police think she knows where Kumar had stashed the cash collected from the customers. Sources said Kumar and Salini were staying together in house in Nedumkandam. The police said Salini had reached Peruvanthanam in Idukki after leaving the jail.
