The Kerala government on Tuesday decided to prosecute the six policemen involved in the custodial death of Rajkumar who was accused of financial fraud and brought to the Nedumkandam Police Station on June 15, 2019, and illegally detained there for five days. He died while on remand at the Peerumade sub-jail on June 21, 2019.
The decision to act against the police officials was taken after considering the report of Justice K Narayana Kurup Commission of Enquiry. The Kerala Police chief has been instructed to dismiss the six cops directly involved in the case. The officers who will face dismissal are: SI K A Sabu, ASI Roy, driver Niyas, CPO Jithin, Rejimon and home guard James. They will be prosecuted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, mainly under sections that deal with tampering of evidence, torture and wrongful confinement.
Action will also be taken against three government doctors who demonstrated criminal callousness while examining Rajkumar. A doctor at the Taluk Headquarters Hospital, Peerumedu, where a heavily tortured Rajkumar was first taken to by the police, took an X-Ray of only his knees while it was his entire upper body and the back of the thighs that were pulverised by the Nedumkandam police.
When the Commission asked the doctor why he had not admitted Rajkumar, the doctor was matter of fact: "I did not examine him from head to toe thereby missing the injuries on his back, namely trunk, back of left thigh and hence was not admitted."
At the Kottayam Medical College, an ultrasound of Rajkumar's abdomen was done on a faulty machine and, therefore, the serious injury to his kidney was left unnoticed. "But nothing prevented the MCH doctors from admitting Rajkumar and ordering a CT scan so as to arrive at a correct diagnosis of acute renal failure cause by the custodial torture," the Commission report says.
It was also found that most of the questions that Rajkumar was asked were answered by the policemen who were with him.
Even in death, Rajkumar's rights were violated. The first autopsy was so shoddy that the Commission of Enquiry called for a re-postmortem. For this, Rajkumar's body had to be exhumed from its resting place at the cemetery of St Sebstian's Parish Church. It was the second autopsy that revealed the shocking brutality of the torture inflicted on Rajkumar while in illegal custody. The second autopsy brought to light 21 injuries ignored by the first autopsy.
Rajkumar was picked up by the police from his house at Kolahalamedu, near Vagamon in Idukki, on the midnight of June 12, 2019. The charge was that he had secreted away a sum of Rs 40 lakh that he had mobilised from the customers of Haritha Finance, a lending agency he opened over a month ago on May 2.
It was true that Rajkumar had collected money from people by offering an attractive scheme. If a person pays a processing fee of Rs 1000 or above, in 20 days he or she would be given a loan that was 100 times the processing fee. If Rs 1000 was the fee, the depositor would be given a loan of Rs one lakh. If it was Rs 5000, the loan amount would be Rs 5 lakh. The loan can repaid in instalments but the client will have to surrender his/her property deed as collateral to Haritha Finance.
The police inflicted unspeakable trauma - sustained beatings, relentless kicking on the abdomen, rubbing the insides of chilli in the eyes, inserting the mid-rib of coconut leaves (eerkkili) through the genital orifice - on Rajkumar hoping he would reveal where he had stashed the money. The re-postmortem found that Rajkumar had died of complications caused by "multiple blunt injuries".
After six days in illegal custody, the re-postmortem had found that Rajkumar had gained 8 kg weight. "This is indicative of gross edema (swelling caused by fluid leak into tissues from small blood vessels) that could have been caused by impairment of kidneys as a result of crush syndrome," Dr P B Gujral, the government chief forensic consultant, told the Commission.
Truth was, Rajkumar was only the face of Haritha Finance. All the money he had mobilised was with another person, Nizar. There were enough eyewitness accounts to show that torture continued to be inflicted on Rajkumar even after he developed an unsteady gait and blood was flowing from his urine. The signs of a kidney rupture was already evident. All this while his detention was not even recorded by S I Sabu though he was told to do so by his superiors.
Such inhuman torture was meted out to two women, Salini and Manju Aji, who held the posts of managing director and director of Haritha Finance. They were also handcuffed and paraded through streets by the police. The Commission has also recommended action against women civil police officers who had paraded Salini and Manju along public roads.
The case which was investigated by the Crime Branch was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the behest of the High Court.
Rajkumar's family will also be given a compensation of Rs 20 lakh; Rs 10 lakh for his wife Vijaya, Rs 5 lakh for his mother Vijaya, Rs 5 lakh for his son Joshymon. Salini, who was tortured and paraded in public, will be given a compensation of Rs 15 lakh. Manju, who was also paraded in public, will get a compensation of Rs 10 lakh.
