Custodial torture: Kerala advised to provide R 5 lakh to former DIET lecturer

By Express News Service
KALPETTA: Sultan Bathery Sub Court has ordered the state authorities to offer Rs 5 lakh as compensation to DIET former senior lecturer Okay Okay Surendran for torturing him in police custody in reference to the Muthanga incident in 2003.

The respondents within the case are the then chief secretary, district collector, Sultan Bathery sub inspector P Vishwambharan, circle inspector Devarajan, ASI Mathai and cops Vasantha Kumar, Raghunathan and Varghese. The court docket order says that the cash must be given by the federal government which in flip must be claimed from the accused.

Surendran was arrested on February 19, 2003, by police forcibly from his workplace on the cost that he took class to tribal individuals to assault policemen. A tribal youth and a policeman had been killed within the Muthanga tribal stir over land situation. 

It was led by activists C Okay Janu and M Geethanandan. Surendran was arrested and put in jail for greater than a month. “This is the triumph of justice after a prolonged battle. The police system which interprets empathy shown to the downtrodden as a criminal offence, and the power structure which supports such policing should definitely be defeated,” Surendran stated.