The Kerala High Court has acquitted four police officers in the case of death of a person in police custody. The court said that the prosecution failed to prove the charge due to the flawed CBI investigation. In 2018, six police officers were convicted by the session court, two of whom have died.
Justice King Vijayaraghavan V. and Justice K.K. The bench of V. Jayakumar rejected the conviction of all four. Hearing the court’s verdict, the deceased Udayakumar’s mother’s affair cried. In 2018, the session court convicted two and sentenced him to death and sentenced four, convicting the records. One of the six died during the hearing in the session court and the officer who got the death penalty died while pending the High Court appeal.
The bench gave relief to the remaining four accused and said that the evidence submitted before the session court during the hearing was not enough to convict the accused of custody in custody. The bench said, “The findings lodged in the disputed judgment are based on estimates and speculation, hence it is not eligible under the law,” the bench said.
The High Court termed the CBI investigation as an ‘repressive’ and said that the agency adopted a ‘completely illegal process’ by making an eyewitness who had no real relations with the incident. On the request of the victim’s family, the investigation of the case was handed over to the CBI.
The bench also said that the CBI gathered all the witnesses indiscriminately and forced them to become a government witness. The prosecution had said that two police officers associated with the Fort Police Station of Thiruvananthapuram took the victim into custody on 27 September 2005 at around 2:15 pm when he was standing in Srikantewaram Park with his friend Suresh Kumar.
The court was also told that he was taken to the office of the Fort police station and then a nearby Circle Inspector, where he was interrogated in custody. Later, on the same day at around 11:40 pm, Udayakumar was declared dead at the Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. In the post -mortem report, serious injuries on both thighs were considered the cause of death.
The mother of the deceased Udayakumar expressed displeasure over the High Court’s decision and cried, saying that for only four rupees, the accused officers beaten to death by the accused officers. How can any court leave such officers, they will kill more people tomorrow.