Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Youth's death: protest in front of medical college mortuary

Staff Reporter

District Collector conducts preliminary inquiry

AT THE RECEIVING END: District Collector N. Ayyappan who tries to defuse the tension at the Medical College Hospital on Monday being heckled by a person. - Photo: S. Gopakumar

Thiruvananthapuram: Over 300 people from Anamugham on Monday besieged the Medical College Hospital (MCH) mortuary refusing to accept the body of a local youth who drowned after the police allegedly chased him into the Aakkulam Lake on Sunday evening.

District Collector N. Ayyappan was directed to the spot by Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, on Monday afternoon, to defuse the tense situation in front of the mortuary.

The Collector, who was heckled by some angry persons in the crowd, told The Hindu later that he had conducted a preliminary inquiry into the incident and "recommended that the policemen prima facie responsible for the situation be placed under suspension pending detailed inquiry." He said the report would be forwarded to City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham.

The Commissioner, acting on the basis of the Collector's report, has placed under suspension pending inquiry five policemen attached to the Medical College Police Station. They are C. Shabu, junior Sub Inspector; and constables, Manmadhan, Surendran, Srijith and Sreekumar.

Speaking to presspersons after visiting the Tourism Directorate on the Park View premises on Monday, the Minister said "stern action" would be taken against the guilty police officials after getting the report. "If they are guilty, they would be punished," he added.

Report sought

Meanwhile, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) member A. Lakshmikutty has registered a case on her own accord in connection with the incident. A press release issued by the SHRC here said the member had sought a detailed report on the incident from Superintendent of Police, Rural.

The body of Rajesh, a 24-year-old Bharatiya Masdoor Sangh unionist and resident of Kazhavancode Colony, was fished out of the lake on Sunday evening. His relatives staged a protest in front of the Medical College Hospital the same day night demanding "action against the policemen who chased Rajesh into the lake and threw stones at him to prevent him from swimming to safety of the shore."

According to the Circle Inspector, Medical College, K.E. Baiju, a police patrol party had challenged a group of people who were playing cards in the open near the Aakulam boat club on Sunday evening. The police arrested five members of the group while the rest ran away. Some of the fleeing members jumped into the lake to evade being arrested.

He said Rajesh, whose body was fished out from the lake later, was accused in an Explosives Act case relating to the attack on the office of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) in Pettah in 1999. The police had stepped up patrolling in Aakkulam recently following reports of increased anti-social activity, including eve teasing of visitors, gambling, drinking and presence of goonda elements.

According to the police, the first opinion of the forensic doctors who conducted the autopsy on Rajesh's body was that the youth had died due to drowning. The police, quoting forensic experts, said no contusions or marks were found on Rajesh's body to suggest that he was manhandled or attacked with stones prior to his death.

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