Sreejeev custodial death: Mother may protest again to demand suspension of accused cops

Remani lost her 25-year-old son Sreejeev in May 2014 in an alleged custodial death. The CBI is currently probing the case.
Sreejeev custodial death: Mother may protest again to demand suspension of accused cops
Sreejeev custodial death: Mother may protest again to demand suspension of accused cops
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As an alleged custodial death has created heated discussions in the state, Remani, mother of Sreejeev, another alleged victim of the same crime, has said that she plans to begin a new protest as the policemen accused in her son’s case have not yet been suspended.

Remani told TNM that on Monday she would try to meet the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with a plea.

“How can it continue like this… the livelihood of my children, who have to earn bread and butter for me, is gone. One is still protesting, there should be an end to this,” she says.

Remani has not got an appointment to meet the CM. “I had tried earlier to meet him, but didn’t get an appointment. On Monday I will just go, take a pass for visitors and try to meet him,” she says.

Remani had lost her 25-year-old son Sreejeev in May 2014. Sreejeev had been booked by the Parassala police after being accused of theft. Days after, he died at the Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram. It was alleged that custodial torture claimed the youth’s life, while the police say that he consumed poison. Sreejeev’s brother, Sreejith, has been protesting in front of the Secretariat demanding the accused be brought before the law. The CBI is currently probing the case.

On January 31, after the CBI recorded statements from him and his mother, Sreejith had called off the protest. But days later, he restarted it at the same venue. The protest is still on, as Sreejith is determined that he will end it only after the accused are booked.

“What is the point of the probe when the accused policemen are still in service? The government is protecting them. Until the culprits in the custodial death are punished, such crimes will keep occurring and mothers will keep losing their sons.

“One would assume that such custodial torture deaths have ended, but it is happening again solely because no one is punished. The police personnel who are accused in the death of my son are living in front of my eyes, nothing has changed for them. We don’t want to retaliate, but we seek the justice that law can give us,” Remani says.

She asks, “If the police are capable of arresting the culprits in other crimes why don’t they do the same when their own colleagues are the culprits? The police have even got training to eliminate evidence in case if anyone dies due to custodial torture. This is all happening for the poor only, because even the government is aware that we are not financially capable of taking it up legally and neither do we have the influence to pressurise the authorities until justice is assured. Such things won’t happen in the case of the rich.

“How can the compensation given by the government replace my son? Children are the ones who should do the last rites for parents, not the other way round,” Remani says. 

Sreejith, a youth from Varappuzha in Ernakulam, died on Monday due to injuries caused allegedly by custodial torture.

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