CBI takes over probe into Wayanad tribal youth’s death in police custody

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken over the probe into the alleged custodial death of Gokul, an 18-year-old tribal youth, at Kalpetta police station in Wayanad district, which had earlier been investigated by the Crime Branch.

A special team from the CBI’s Thiruvananthapuram unit will investigate the case based on a notification published by the State government in the Kerala Gazette on June 6 that gave consent to transfer the case under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act. 

Expressing disappointment over the local police investigation, Omana, Gokul’s mother, had moved the Kerala High Court with a request to hand over the case to the CBI as the suspects were all police officers. She had accused the police of grave human rights violations while keeping him in custody without any evidence of his involvement in any cognizable offence.

It was on April 1 that Gokul was found dead in the washroom of the Kalpetta police station, a day after he was taken into custody in connection with the missing of a minor tribal girl. Two police officers, including an Assistant Sub-inspector, were placed under suspension following an internal investigation.  

There were also a series of protests on the part of tribal families and human rights organisations for considering the incident just as a case of unnatural death under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.

Seeking a CBI probe, they had appealed to the State government to have a serious look at the investigation report submitted to the Deputy Inspector General of Police (North Zone) that had found several grave lapses on the part of police officers in ensuring Gokul’s safe custody.

The Kerala State Human Rights Commission had also registered a case and sought a separate report from the District Police Chief (Wayanad).

It was on March 31 that the 18-year-old from Nellarachal near Wayanad district’s Ambalavayal was taken into custody from Kozhikode along with the missing tribal girl. The two were reportedly fleeing their village in Wayanad following some inter-tribe issues over their relationship and the decision to get married. Though the police sent the girl to a government shelter home, the youth was kept in police custody. He was found dead the following day.

However, the police officers at the Kalpetta station had denied allegations of custodial torture and claimed that the post-mortem examination had found no trace of injuries on his body to prove the same. Citing the case as a suicide, they had also tried to uncover some of the previous “self-killing attempts” by the youth on various issues.