Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Cabinet decided to call CBI to investigate the controversial Nedumkandam police custodial killing. As police officers are the main accused in the case only a CBI inquiry could unravel the circumstances that led to the death of Rajkumar.
Moreover, the government is under pressure from the opposition parties for the death of a suspect in custody. Rajkumar is said to have undergone brutal torture while in police custody.
Notably, the Cabinet decision comes at a time when the High Court is examining the plea by Rajkumar’s family requesting the court to order a CBI investigation into Rajkumar’s death.
An ongoing probe by the Crime Branch and a Judicial investigation is also underway in the custodial death.
The body of Rajkumar was exhumed a few weeks back for re-postmortem as part of the Judicial investigation. The postmortem revealed further injury marks that were not noted in the first postmortem by the forensics. The body had not decayed much which made it possible for the investigators to locate further injury marks on the body.
These injury marks could by fatal and might have led to the death of Rajkumar. This gives more credence to the accusation that Rajkumar died by torture at the hands of the police.
Political experts believe that the Cabinet decision calling for CBI inquiry into the case stems from the fear that a High Court order for CBI investigation will make the government look bad.
