HC seeks remand proceedings of Rajkumar

Source: thehindu.com

The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the magistrate court concerned to furnish details of the proceedings relating to the judicial remand of financial fraud accused Rajkumar who died while in police custody.

The court passed the directive on a bail petition filed by K.A. Sabu, suspended sub-inspector of Nedumkandam police station and an accused in the Rajkumar custodial death case.

When the bail petition came up for hearing, the court orally observed that it wanted to know whether the magistrate concerned had asked Rajkumar if the police had tortured him when he was in police custody.

The court orally observed that there were some missing links in the investigation. Besides, the investigation by the police did not appear to be unbiased. When the court asked whether the CCTV footage of the police station were examined, the government pleader said that visuals were not available.

The court also wanted to know whether the CCTV had been connected with the control room Had it been connected, such custodial torture could have been avoided. The court orally observed that the medical report did not mention about the injuries suffered by the deceased Rajkumar when he had allegedly tried to escape from police custody. The police had claimed that Rajkumar had suffered injuries when he tried to escape from the police custody.

The court also pointed out that the accused had been in custody for last 35 days and the police was yet to complete the investigation.

The government pleader submitted that if the accused was granted bail, it would affect the further investigation. Various materials, including CCTV footage, were sent for forensic examination. The police were awaiting the results of the examination.

In his bail petition, the suspended SI had said that he had not illegally detained Rajkumar on his own will. In fact, it was done on the directives of his senior officials. Besides, the deceased was examined by the doctors three times before he was produced before the magistrate court concerned. Rajkumar did not then raise any allegation of assault by the petitioner or other officers.