Udaya Kumar custodial death case; all accused policemen acquitted citing insufficient evidence

KOCHI: All the accused policemen in the sensational Udaya Kumar custodial death case, at the Fort police station in Thiruvananthapuram, have been acquitted. The death sentence awarded to the first accused by the CBI court has been quashed. The high court verdict pointed serious lapses from the side of the CBI in the investigation.

There are six accused in the case and they were of the ranks DySP, SP, ASI and CPO. The Thiruvananthapuram CBI special court had sentenced the first accused ASI K Jitha Kumar and the second accused CPO S V Sreekumar to death in 2018.

The second accused had died earlier. The court acquitted the cops on the grounds of insufficient evidence in the CBI investigation. The incident related to the case happened on September 29 in 2005. Udaya Kumar was taken into custody on charges of theft. Udaya Kumar had Rs 4,020 in his hand then. Udaya Kumar was beaten to death on the charge of stealing this money. The court had ordered that Udaya Kumar’s mother Prabhavathi be given the money (Rs 4020), his bicycle and the ellas he was wearing. The money he had in his hand was the bonus he got at the time of Onam and kept it to buy his mother Onakodi.

Udayakumar (26) of Killippalam Kezharannoor Kunnumpuram House and his friend Suresh Kumar, who were resting at the Sreekanteswaram Park, were picked up by the crime squad of Fort circle inspector E K Sabu at noon on September 27, 2005. They were taken to the Fort station by squad members Jitha Kumar and Sreekumar. They were beaten brutally on the source of Rs 4020 Udaya Kumar had in his hand. He was made to lie on the bench and rolled around with an iron rod and beat his soles with a cane stick. A scientific examination revealed that he died due to ruptured blood vessels of his thighs.

A false case was filed against Udaya Kumar after his death to make it appear that he was arrested at 8 pm in a theft case. Documents including the general diary and duty book were destroyed. Although the local police and the crime branch investigated the case, the case was limited to the accused policemen Jitha Kumar, Sreekumar and Soman. The CBI conducted the investigation by filing two cases for murder and destruction of evidence and making the policemen collectively accused. The charge sheet was filed by CBI Thiruvananthapuram unit's additional SP K Pradeep Kumar.