Kerala High Court orders immediate handover of Tanur custodial death probe to CBI

The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to immediately take over the investigation into the Tanur custodial death case, wherein one Tamir Jifri died after allegedly undergoing custodial torture at the hands of the Kerala police. .Justice PV Kunhikrishnan directed the CBI to take over the investigation from the Crime Branch of Kerala Police within one week.The Crime Branch was ordered to hand over the case diary as well as other relevant documents to the CBI immediately.Further, the High Court directed the State government to provide all necessary assistance to the CBI investigation team..The High Court was considering a petition filed by the brother of 30-year-old Jifri who died on August 1.Jifri was under the custody of the District Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force (DANSAF) at the time of his death. He had been arrested on suspicions that he possessed narcotic drugs.DANSAF is a secret and special squad that functions directly under the command of the District Police Chief and Indian Police Force (IPS) officer, Sujith Das.Jifri's brother alleged that Jifri and 11 other persons were taken to a torture centre in Tanur. It was further alleged that Jifri was brutally beaten and thrashed with dangerous weapons and that no drugs were ultimately recovered from Jifri or the other accused persons.The plea added that on August 1, at around 12.30 AM, Jifri and the other persons were made to stand in underwear and that by 4.30 AM, Jifri fell down and died as he sustained serious injuries due to the extensive beating.The plea added that following the death of Jifri, the District Police Chief of Tanur and the Inspector of Police reached the police station and made arrangements to cover up the custodial death.The Sub-Inspector of Police is alleged to have falsely registered the First Information Report (FIR) against Jifri and the four others based on a cooked-up story that he was found in possession of a ‘commercial quantity’ of MDMA, as per the plea.Jifri's brother added that another FIR under Section 174 of the CrPC was registered after Jifri's death which dishonestly stated that the overconsumption of MDMA was the cause of his death.It was also highlighted that a post-mortem report indicated that Jifri had sustained injuries due to beating which had contributed to his death. Jifri's brother contended that the crime branch did not conduct a proper investigation into these aspects and that no one was made an accused or arrested.“Meanwhile, 8 police officers including 3 DANSAF members were suspended from service. But the other members of DANSAF were spared,” he added..While so, Jifri's brother also pointed out that on August 10, he learnt that even though the case was transferred to CBI, the crime branch was illegally continually the investigation as per the direction of the District Chief Police.He also raised concerns that certain police officials had allegedly gone to the extent of challenging the police surgeon and attempted to conduct a re-post mortem.In this backdrop, he approached the High Court with a plea seeking directions for a handover of the probe to the CBI, which has now been allowed by the Court. .The petitioner was represented by advocates PA Mohammed Shah, Renoy Vincent, Shahir Showkath Ali, Chelson Chembarathy, Abee Shejirik Fasla NK, Muhamed Junaid, Adith Krishnan U, and Fathima Afeeda.