Kottayam: M S Shibu, former assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Gandhinagar police station, has been dismissed from service for abetting the kidnapping and murder of Dalit Christian youth Kevin P Joseph.

Inspector General of Police Vijay Sakhare has also issued termination of service notice to ASI T M Biju, who accepted bribe from the accused. Civil Police Officer (CPO) M N Ajayakumar, a police driver attached to the same station, has been handed an increment bar for three years.

The action to dismiss the personnel was taken on basis of inquiry report which was conducted following allegations that certain police officers had attempted to sabotage the investigation by colluding with the accused.

As per the chargesheet submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), Kevin, 24, who hailed from SH Mount in Kottayam, was brutally beaten up by his fiancee’s family and later drowned to death. His body was recovered from the Chaliakara river near Pathanapuram in Kollam district on May 28, 2018.

Investigations had revealed that a patrol under ASI T M Biju intercepted the vehicle driven by Sanu Chacko, brother of Kevin's fiancee Neenu Chacko and the key accused in the case, but they were allowed to go for a bribe of Rs 2,000. The SIT had informed the court that Biju had prior knowledge of the abduction of Kevin by the gang.

The preliminary hearing into the case, which has been listed as an instance of ‘honour killing’, began at the Kottayam Additional Sessions Court –IV on Wednesday.

Sanu is the prime accused while his father Chacko is the fifth accused.

Kevin had met Neenu as she pursued a course at a college in Kottayam. Two days before the murder, the two had filed a joint application for marriage registration at a sub-registrar office in Kottayam as Neenu's family fiercely objected to their marriage.

Neenu's family later registered a complaint with the police stating that she had gone missing. Though the police summoned the two, Kevin and his cousin Anish left the girl back at her hostel as she confirmed that she intended to go with Kevin.

Thereafter, the armed gang, which arrived in three vehicles, reached Kottayam and vandalised Kevin's house. They forcibly took away Kevin and Anish. The abductors thrashed Anish severely and left him on the way.

Kevin's body was later found in a river in Kollam on May 28. His relatives alleged that he was tortured and killed.

His family had alleged that laxity on the part of the local police in taking action on a man-missing complaint filed by Neenu had resulted in the gruesome death of the youth.

Sub-inspector M S Shibu and ASI Sunnymon of the Gandhinagar police station were suspended, while Kottayam district superintendent of police V M Mohammed Rafique was transferred following the incident.

The post-mortem conducted at the Kottayam Medical College hospital had found that there were 16 cuts and bruises on Kevin's body.

The findings of the police inquiry and the post-mortem say that Kevin drowned in the Chaliyakkara river while he was trying to escape from the gang. But doubts remain whether Kevin died after falling in the river while running at night or if he was beaten by the goons and dumped in the river in the belief that he had died.

Assessing the background of the crime, the Additional Sessions Court in Kottayam produced its judgment over the prosecution's plea, demanding that Kevin's murder be considered as a case of honour killing. As a result, the trial will be now be completed within six months.

The charge-sheet says that Kevin, a dalit Christian from Kottayam, was kidnapped and murdered by a gang led by Sanu Chacko, brother of Kevin's fiancee Neenu Chacko, on May 27. Sanu is the prime accused while his father Chacko is the fifth accused.