Malappuram: The High Court of Kerala on Friday ordered the case related to the alleged custodial death of Thamir Jifri in Tanur to be handed over to the CBI.
The court has directed the Crime Branch to hand over the case diary and related documents. The CBI has been told to take up the investigation within a week.
“The court considered the lag in the investigation from the side of the police and also evaluated the gravity of the case while taking the decision,” Mohammed Shah, the advocate who appeared for the family of Jifri told Onmanorama. “The court has also directed the police to extend their support in the CBI investigation.”
Jifri (30) died in police custody on August 1. He was one of the five youths caught by the Tanur Police in a drug trafficking case. The suspicion of a custodial death emerged from the postmortem report.
Haris Jifri, brother of the deceased, had approached the court alleging that the police were trying to sabotage the case. He demanded a fair inquiry and requested the high court to direct the CBI to take up the investigation as soon as possible.
"The high court order is a relief for the family which has been demanding a fair inquiry for a month," said Haris Jifri, brother of the deceased. We had a ray of hope when the government declared a CBI inquiry, but there was no clarity on when the agency would take up the case. There was a chance of evidence being tampered with in case of a delay. We also feared that a police inquiry would not be enough to prove a case against personnel of the department," said Haris.
P M Rafeeq, working chairman of the action council echoed Haris's feelings. "We hope the CBI inquiry would bring justice to the family," he said.
The Crime Branch began its investigation on August 2, but has yet to make arrests. In its reports submitted at the Parappanangadi court, the Crime Branch had named four members of the District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force (DANSAF) as accused. They were slapped with murder charges.