CBI charge-sheets 9 cops in Kerala custodial death case

Thiruvananthapuram: The Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) charge- sheeted nine police officials, including two women, in an Ernakulam court on Thursday in a custodial death case reported in Nedumkandam in Kerala in 2019.

In its charge sheet submitted in the Chief Judicial Magistrate court, then Sub-Inspector of Nedumkandam police station, KA Sabu, has been made the first accused. ASI Sibi and policemen Rejimon, Niiyas, Sajeev Antony, and Jithin K George and Home Guard KM James are the co-accused.

In June 2019, Rajkumar of Nedumkandam was taken arrested in cases related to a ponzi scheme and allegedly tortured for four days before he was lodged in Nedumkandam sub-jail. He was admitted to a hospital where he breathed his last.

Woman Head Constable Geethu Gopinath and Constable Biju Lukose are also named in the charge sheet that accused Geethu of subjecting a woman employee of a chit fund company, arrested along with Rajkumar, to brutal torture.

The CBI said that the accused police officials had foisted false charges on Rajkumar. The agency had also questioned senior police officers, including then Idukki SP KB Venugopal and Kattapana DSP Shams, jail employees, including warders on duty on that day, doctors who had examined Rajkumar and doctors who conducted the post-mortem.

The CBI took over the case in January 2020.