Nedumkandam: Suspended Sub-Inspector (SI) K A Sabu, who was the prime accused in the Nedumkandam police station custody death case, was arrested on Sunday night after the Supreme Court quashed his bail granted by the Kerala High Court.
Sabu was sub-inspector at the Nedumkandam police station in Kerala's Idukki district, where remand prisoner Raj Kumar died after alleged custodial torture in June, 2019.
He will be produced before court on Monday.
A native of Kolahalamedu near Vagamon in Kottayam, Raj Kumar was arrested over a financial fraud case in Idukki. He died in the Peerumade sub-jail on June 21 while he was on remand custody.
The autopsy report revealed that Kumar had suffered brutal assaults. Allegations were also raised about the use of inhuman torture methods such as ‘urutti kola’, where a heavy iron rod is rolled on the body of the accused. By June last, the case was handed over to the Crime Branch. During the two-month probe of the Crime Branch, 380 people were questioned.
Four police officers, including Sabu, were suspended and five others transferred over the incident.
The special team of the Crime Branch had arrested seven, including Sabu in July, 2019. Sabu was granted bail the next month.
Kumar was brought to the sub-jail on June 16. Only when he was taken to the hospital on June 18, Kumar had first complained of police torture. Kumar had told the magistrate that he had suffered injuries to his left leg as he fell down while trying to flee the police.