Days after eight police officers in Malappuram were charged with the murder in the custodial death case of 30-year-old Thamir Jiffri, one of the accused officers has alleged that he was being framed in the murder case, even though he did not even administer a single slap to the deceased. Speaking to a Malayalam television channel, the now-suspended Tanur Sub Inspector (SI) Krishnalal RD has claimed that the CCTV footage at the police station will reveal his innocence.
Krishnalal is among the eight officers charged with the custodial murder of Thamir Jiffri, who was detained along with 11 others in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) case on July 31.
In an interview released on Thursday, August 17, with the Reporter TV, SI Krishnalal claimed innocence and alleged that he became involved in the case only because the Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force (DANSAF), which first took Thamir and others into custody, did not have the legal right to register the case. The DANSAF — a special force headed by Malappuram Superintendent of Police (SP) Sujith Das — detained the group on the night of July 31, after allegedly finding 18.14 grams of synthetic drug MDMA in their possession.
Krishnalal said several senior officers were aware of the drug bust before he was, and that it was Station House Officer (SHO) Shahanshah IPS who first called him about the group detained by DANSAF, informing him that their arrest would have to be registered at the Tanur station. “Later, Tanur Inspector of Police (IP) Jeevan George contacted us with details of the detention. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) Benny then called to say that 12 people have been detained, and I informed him that the station will not be able to accommodate these many people. We were subsequently informed that the number of detained people has been reduced to five,” he added.
The SI said he left the station to collect the accused from DANSAF at 12.08 am on August 1, and found them near the Devadar Bridge in Tanur. “I noticed that Thamir, who was sitting on the backseat of the car with three others, was behaving erratically. When I asked, they said he had used MDMA. So I made sure not to lay a hand on him,” he said. Besides, the DANSAF did not tell him where they picked them up from, though legally they should have detained them only in his presence, he said. As per protocol, the DANSAF is supposed to wait until the SI arrives before detaining any accused.
After that, the Tirurangadi Inspector of Police subsequently arrived for a body search of the accused, Krishnalal said. “Thamir was the first to be inspected, and he found a packet that weighed more than four grams. He found a total of five such packets, to a total of 18.14 gram MDMA. The report was completed by 1.40 am and we brought the accused to the station immediately.”
Since Thamir was shivering, two of the officers brought him to the resting room upstairs, the SI told the channel. “We thought he could sleep it off. We did not take them for medical examination because the First Information Report (FIR) had to be registered quickly. Otherwise, we would have had to give a detailed explanation in court about the delay,” he added.
Krishnalal asserted that if he had known Thahir had ingested MDMA packets, he would not have brought him into the station but taken him to the hospital instead. “He didn’t tell me, nor did anyone else.”
By around 3.45 am, Thamir had begun to froth at his mouth, and was shivering violently, he said. “The station vehicle arrived in about 15 minutes and we immediately carried him into it. The accused who were brought in with him were crying. I asked them if someone had beaten them, and they said they were assaulted when they were picked up at Chelari. That’s when I realised they were detained from Chelari, and a sense of dread filled me,” he added. Chelari, a village nearly 20 kilometres away from the Tanur station, did not fall under the station limits. By protocol, the detainees were supposed to be taken to the Thenhipalam police station.
According to Krishnalal, the accused who were with Thamir told him it was officer Jinesh and others in the DANSAF team who beat them. “They told me if Thamir died, those officers were responsible,” he said.
“We immediately informed the DySP that Thamir was taken to the hospital and his condition was serious. But he asked us to focus on the FIR.”
By 4.40 am, the station received the news that Thamir died, leaving all of them scared, the SI said. “Inspector Jeevan George arrived at the station by 5 am and inquired to the other accused in the NDPS case if they were assaulted at the station. They said no, but added that they were picked up at Chelari around afternoon and the DANSAF squad hit them. The station’s CCTV camera has caught all this. I have filed an RTI seeking the footage. That is the only way I can prove my innocence,” he told the channel.
Thamir’s post-mortem report had revealed that he underwent brutal torture, with up to 21 injuries on his body and swelling in his lung. According to the report, bruises were seen on the bottom end of his spine, thighs and under the legs. Two plastic packets with drugs, one of them opened, were also found in his intestine.
The other officers charged in the case include senior Civil Police Officer (CPO) K Manoj, CPOs Sreekumar and Ashish Stephen, DANSAF officers Jinesh and Abhimanyu, Vipin of Kalpakanchery police station, and Albin Augustine of Parappanangadi station. Meanwhile, amid allegations from Thamir’s family of bias in the police investigation, the state government recently transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and simultaneously ordered a magisterial inquiry into the matter.