Malappuram: Policemen, who are accused in the custodial death of Thamir Jifri in Tanur, have approached a local court for anticipatory bail even as the Crime Branch is expected to submit a report on the progress of the investigation at the Kerala High Court on Thursday.
Senior Civil Police Officer Jinesh and CPOs Albin Augustine, Abhimanyu and Vipin, the first to fourth accused, in the order, have approached the district court at Manjeri for bail. The four cops, members of the District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force (DANSAF), were charged with murder in a Crime Branch report submitted to the court on August 26.
Jifri (30), one of the five youths caught by the Tanur Police in a drug trafficking case, died on August 1. The suspicion of alleged police brutality had emerged in the postmortem report.
The victim's family has alleged that senior police officers helped the accused cops, Vipin and Albin escape abroad. Jifri's brother had filed a plea in the High Court saying the investigation was not satisfactory. The court, on its part, asked the Crime Branch for an update.
“The police investigation in the case is absolutely not satisfactory,” Mohammed Shah, the advocate who represented the family, told Onmanorama. “They could not arrest a single accused even after five weeks of the custody death. The police have even tried to save the culprits from the judicial procedures,” he said.
The family and an action council seeking justice for Jifri have called for expediting the declared CBI enquiry. They have also demanded an investigation into the alleged role of senior cops, including former district police chief, S Sujith Das.
