Mystery surrounds death in police custody

As part of their investigation, the Koratoor police arrested a rickshaw driver, Mathi, yesterday and recovered half kilogram of silver from him. A search in his house at Ernavoor led to recovery of another kg of silver. During his confession, he is said to have mentioned the role of his relative Balu (25) and friends, Deva (23) and Nithya of Ernavoor.

Following this, police arrested Balu and Deva and raided their houses which led to the recovery of three kgsof silver worth 50,000 rupees and five sovereign of gold. The trio were lodged in Koratoor police station, where the interrogation continued for information about the absconding accused, Nithya. Police said that this morning, Deva, Mathi and Balu had gone to the bathroom to brush their teeth. Later, Balu is said to have sought the permission of the police to go to the lavatory. As Balu did not appear for a long time, police broke open the door to find Balu hanging from the window with the help of his dhoti. Balu was found struggling for his life and police took him to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, where he died.

Police claimed that as they were busy preparing the charge-sheet to be filed in the court, they failed to detect Balu’s suicide plan. The reason attributed by police was that Balu had felt ashamed on being named as accused in the case and had committed suicide. Moreover, he was said to have feared arrest under the Goondas Act. Therefore, he is said to have taken the extreme step.

However,those who doubt the validity of the suicide theory point out that Balu had been arrested earlier and there is no reason for him to be afraid of the police and resort to the extreme step of suicide. Some locals felt that Balu might have been assaulted by the police and could have become unconscious. He was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead.