High court orders Rs10 lakh interim relief to mother

Kochi: The high court on Thursday ordered an interim compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the mother of Udayakumar, a person who had died in custody due to alleged police torture in 2005.
Justice P D Rajan issued the directive after considering during admission hearing a criminal revision petition filed by Sabu E K, a police officer who is accused of manipulating the evidence related to the custodial death on September 27, 2005.
The court ordered the government to pay the compensation to Udayakumar's mother, Prabhavathy of Nedumangad, within 30 days and to recover it from the retirement benefit of the police officers who are involved in the case, if they are found guilty.
For ordering compensation, the court relied on the Supreme Court's 2014 decision, in Suresh vs State of Haryana, that allows courts to order interim compensation under victim compensation scheme if the victim of the crime needs immediate financial relief. Further, the court pointed out that the trial in the case was delayed by the accused police officers through continuous litigations and directed speeding up of the trial.
Udayakumar, a manual labourer, was detained and brought to Fort Police station in Thiruvananthapuram after a police patrol team found Rs 4,000 in cash with him. Police allegedly used the 'uruttu' method of torturing (rolling an iron road across the body by holding it down with force) on Udayakumar. A post-mortem report had indicated injury to his thigh bones. While he was allegedly detained since around 2.30pm, it was recorded as 8pm in the FIR.
Based on a complaint by Prabhavathy, the probe in the case was later transferred to CBI. Following this, a case was registered alleging that efforts were made to hide the roles of those involved in the death, to destroy evidence, including altering the records maintained at the police station. Both the cases were investigated by the CBI, based on orders issued by the high court.
In the latest petition, the accused had alleged procedural irregularity on the part of the CBI team and sought a stay on the trial. After perusing the case diary and other records, the high court said trial in the case could not be started even after 10 years due the continuous litigations by the accused in the case.