Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday hit out at the State Human Rights Commission’s acting chairperson, P Mohana Das, for asking for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the alleged custodial death of a 26-year-old man in Kochi, PTI reported.
The family of SR Sreejith, which has alleged lapses in the police investigation into his death, moved the Kerala High Court on Tuesday, asking for the CBI to take over the investigation, PTI reported. Currently, a Special Investigation Team is looking into the case.
Sreejith, from Varappuzha in Ernakulam district, died on April 9, three days after he was taken away from his home by three men in plain clothes, apparently for attacking the house of a man called Vasudevan. On April 8, he was admitted to a private hospital after he complained of a stomach ache and said he had difficulty urinating. The doctors found his small intestine was damaged and did an emergency surgery.
On April 12, the State Human Rights Commission confirmed that Sreejith had been tortured in custody. Activists said he was the fifth man to die in police custody since the Left Democratic Front government, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), came to power in May 2016.
Rejecting the demand for a CBI inquiry into Sreejith’s death, Kerala Chief Minister Vijayan claimed that the human rights commission chairperson’s demand appeared to be part of a political stand. Das was appointed by the previous Congress-led alliance government.
Vijayan said the state had already taken strict action against the police personnel involved, and that four of them, including an inspector, were arrested. Speaking to the media in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayan said Sreejith’s death was “unfortunate,” and “should not have happened in Kerala”.
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