Udayakumar custodial death case: CBI court awards death sentence to 2 cops

Thiruvananthapuram, July 25: Thiruvananthapuram Special CBI court on Wednesday awarded death sentence to Assistant sub-inspector of police K Jithukumar and Civil Police Officer SV Sreekumar in connection with Udayakumar custodial death case. This pertains to a 13-year-old case where a man, Udayakumar, had died in police custody.

The police officers guilty of torturing to death Udayakumar at the Fort police station here in 2005 and three of their immediate supervisors liable for having attempted to cover up the crime by destroying evidence and fudging station records.

What happened in 2015:

Udaya Kumar and Suresh were at Sreekandeshwaram Park when constables K Jithukumar and SV Sreekumar apprehended them after they found Rs. 4,500 in his pocket. Suspecting that the cash was stolen, the policemen took them to the Fort Station for interrogation.

The duo was subjected to brutal third-degree treatment in a bid to extract confession from them.

The CBI filed a chargesheet in September 2010. Murder charges were framed against Jithakumar, Sreekumar and Soman. Soman had died during the trial. The case was initially being probed by the crime branch of Kerala police. But Udayakumar's mother had moved court seeking CBI inquiry in 2008.