The Kerala High Court on Monday turned down a plea seeking direction for a CBI investigation into the murder of 26-year-old Sreejith of Varappuzha near Kochi in April in police custody by observing that the probe into the incident by the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police was progressing satisfactorily.
Rejecting the petition filed by Sreejith’s widow Akhila, a single-judge bench of the court said that there was no ground for the petitioner’s anxiety that witnesses in the custodial death case could be influenced if the police probed the case in which the accused were officers of own department because all the main witnesses in the case were relatives of Sreejith.
The court observed that the probe by the Crime Branch’s special investigation team was satisfactory and carrying out the investigation in a time-bound manner. The court came to the decision of dismissing the plea after hearing in detail the arguments of Sreejith’s widow and the Government, which opposed the plea, and examining the case diary.
Akhila had moved the High Court by pointing out that the truth behind the murder of Sreejith would not come out if the State police themselves investigated a case against police officers. But the Prosecution claimed that nine police officers had already been arrested and that they included Sub Inspectors and Circle Inspectors.
The CBI had told the court that there were serious lapses from the part of the police since the very beginning of the probe and that it was prepared to take up the investigation if the court ordered, but the Prosecution pointed out that all the errors in the beginning of the probe had been corrected and the court itself could verify this from the case diary produced before it.
The family of Sreejith suspect involvement of regional leaders of the ruling CPI(M) in the custodial murder but the court, which concluded that there was no situation that warranted a CBI investigation, rejected this argument by pointing out that even the family did not have an opinion that the youth was in the opposite camp of the CPI(M).
However, Sreejith’s family said they would continue the legal battle and appeal against the High Court order. “We will be satisfied with nothing less than a CBI probe. The Government is opposing a CBI probe in order to protect the top officials behind my son’s murder. Efforts in this direction were there right from the beginning,” said Sreejith’s mother Syamala.
Sreejith, father of a three-year-old girl, was taken into custody by three officials from the now-disbanded Rural Tiger Force, constituted illegally by then Superintendent of Police (Ernakulam Rural) AV George, while he was asleep in his house at Devaswompadam, Varappuzha at midnight on April 6 in connection with the suicide of a neighbour.
The youth died at a Kochi hospital on April 9 allegedly as a result of brutal torture in police custody. It was later established that Sreejith was not an accused in the case related to the suicide and that his arrest was a case of mistaken identity. The Crime Branch’s probe team arrested nine police officers — including the three RTF men — in connection with the incident.
Sreejith’s family firmly believes that Sreejith was the victim of a conspiracy in which political leaders were involved and they demand naming of George as an accused in the case. According to the Congress-led Opposition UDF, George cannot be spared as it is unbelievable that his subordinate officers had takes Sreejith into custody without his instructions and clearance.
“There was indeed a conspiracy. After Sreejith was taken into custody, the officers at the Varappuzha Police Station had told us that he could not be released as they had received orders from ‘above’. Who are these people who had issued orders from ‘above’ Only a CBI probe can find these people,” said Syamala.