Kottayam: Kerala police has proved once again that when it comes to torture and brutality, they are not far behind. The postmortem report of a person who died in police custody reveals that the deceased was tortured and had to face extreme brutality at the hands of the police.
Rajkumar, a 49 year old resident of Idukki, was taken into custody by the police in a loan fraud case. According to the police he was arrested on 15 June and remanded. On 21 June he was admitted to a hospital where he died soon after.
His relatives say that he was arrested on 12 June and beaten up in police custody.
Postmortem shows that he was tortured with 22 injuries and 7 beaten marks. His thighs and legs sustained severe injuries and had marks of beatings. The report gives the reason for his death as pneumonia he contracted from the internal injuries he got while being tortured by the police.
Most of his injuries are below his waist refuting the police statement that he was injured in a mob attack. If he was attacked by a mob his whole body would have had injury marks. His injury marks bears the sign of custodial torture by police.
Another story by the police which has since been refuted is that Rajkumar was taken to the Medical College by the police. The police say he died after a lapse from the doctors who treated him. However, hospital authorities maintain that they do not have any records of such a patient being treated at the Medical College.
The police in Kerala has come under severe criticism in the past too. In recent times complaints against their inefficiency, brutality, and unprofessionalism has made headlines in the news. Interestingly, the home ministry is under the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was hailed as an able administrator by his hard core fans.
