Thodupuzha: The Idukki District Police Chief K B Venugopal, who is facing allegations over the death of Raj Kumar following custodial torture at Nedumkandam police station, has been transferred. He will now be the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the Anti-Terrorism Squad. Meanwhile, the government has shifted Malappuram SP, T Narayanan, to Idukki. Abdul Kareem will take his place in Malappuram.
Sub-Inspector K M Sabu, who has been arrested in the case, had told Crime Branch officials that torture victim Raj Kumar was kept in custody without recording his arrest for four days on the instructions of the Idukki District Police Chief and other top officials.
Sabu reportedly gave a statement as follows: “SP K B Venugopal issued directives to question Kumar (Raj Kumar) for two more days. The SP said that the Range DIG was aware of Kumar’s custody. Kumar was detained to locate the money belonging to the complainants in the case. The photo of Kumar was sent to the WhatsApp numbers of the SP and other officials.”
The SP had said that he was kept in the dark about Kumar’s custody. Meanwhile, investigators said that an ASI and a police driver would soon be arrested over the custody death. First accused Sabu and fourth accused driver Sajeev Antony are already under arrest. The remand report filed by the Crime Branch before the Peerumedu First Class Judicial Magistrate Court says that these four police officers had subjected Kumar to severe torture.
The death of financier Kumar after brutal torture in police station last month had unsettled the public over the cruelties meted out to him. Murky financial deals could have costed Kumar his life and it is suspected that more powerful people are involved in it.
It is said that that large amounts of money were mobilised by his firm, Haritha Finance, based at Thookuopalam in Kerala's Idukki district close to the Tamil Nadu border. Eight cops of the Nedumkandam police station where he was subjected to third-degree torture have been suspended.
