Family members of 41-year-old Mathai, a farmer who was based out of Chittar in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district, have finally decided to conduct his funeral after a month. The family’s decision comes as the case of his death has been taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
It was on July 28 that Mathai was found dead in a well, hours after he was taken into custody by officials of the Chittar Forest Division. Mathai’s family, alleged that a few Forest Department officials assaulted and killed him. They had protested for days and had refused to conduct the funeral stating that the ‘real culprits’ in the case should be brought to light. The case was handed over to the CBI after the family approached the Kerala High Court.
“Now that the CBI has taken over the case, we have hope that the real culprits who were responsible for my husband’s death will be exposed,” Mathai’s wife Sheeba told TNM. She also added that CBI conducted a re-postmortem of Mathai's body on Friday.
The family has decided to conduct the funeral on Saturday at the St Mary’s Orthodox Church in Kodupana. The initial post mortem conducted soon after his death, had said that there were no signs of assualt and Mathai had died of drowning.
According to the family, on the day of the incident, Mathai was forcefully taken into custody from his house by a group of the Forest Department officials alleging that he destroyed a CCTV installed by the department around his farm house. He was taken straight to his farm house, which is beside the forest region, and it was in a well situated inside the farm house that Mathai was found dead.
Last month, two officers -- R Rajesh Kumar, Deputy Range Forest Officer and AK Pradeep Kumar, Section Forest Officer -- were suspended by the department as part of the inquiry. Some officials were also transferred from the Chittar division.