Thiruvananthapuram > A special CBI court on Wednesday awarded the death sentence to two policemen who had tortured a 26-year-old man to death at a Thiruvananthapuram police station 13 years ago. CBI judge K Nazar said the main accused - civil police officers K Jithakumar and SV Sreekumar - deserved maximum punishment because it was a 'rarest of the rare' crime. The two will also have to pay Rs 2 lakh each to the mother of the victim, who fought the case all by herself for 13 years.
The court had found five officers guilty of the crime on Tuesday. While Jithakumar and Sreekumar were convicted of murder, the others - then assistant commissioner of police TK Haridas, circle inspector EK Sabu and sub-inspector Ajith Kumar - were held responsible for destroying evidence and trying to cover up the crime. A sixth accused died during the course of the trial.
On September 27, 2005, Udayakumar and his friend Suresh Kumar were picked up by Fort Police in Thiruvananthapuram from near Sreekanteswaram Park. Suresh was picked up in connection with a theft case. Udayakumar was in possession of Rs 4,000 and the police assumed that it was the stolen money. He along with Suresh was then allegedly subjected to third-degree methods of interrogation at the Fort Police Station. Udaykumar was pinned down on a table and the police rolled a large iron rod over his body. Udaykumar, who sustained grievous injuries, succumbed. The autopsy found 22 injury marks on his body.
Prabhavati, the 68-year-old mother of Udayakumar, fought a 13-year-long battle to prove that her son was killed in police custody. She moved a petition before the Kerala High Court demanding a CBI probe in the matter. The arrest of the accused police personnel was only after the CBI probe.
