Thiruvananthapuram: On Saturday, Sreejith completed 764 days of protest outside the Kerala State Secretariat, demanding ‘justice’ for his brother.
The 30-year-old alleges that his brother Sreejeev was tortured and killed in police custody in 2014, and is demanding an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CBI has refused to take up the case, saying that it is not of rare and exceptional nature to warrant an investigation and that they are already burdened with cases.
But Sreejith refused to give up, lying on the road outside the secretariat for the past 764 days, day and night. During this period, he even went on hunger strike for several days.
Sreejeev was picked up by the police in May 2014 in a theft case. Some days later, he was dead. According to the police, Sreejeev committed suicide by consuming poison but Sreejith alleges that the police murdered his brother.
“My brother was arrested by the police on a false theft case. He was involved with a girl, who was a relative of a policeman. My brother was arrested the day before her wedding. If he was arrested in a theft case, they should have produced him in court. Instead, they tortured him,” he said.
“I got a call stating that my brother tried to commit suicide by consuming poison. I saw him at medical college. He died at the hospital," he added
Sreejith claims that he saw marks on his brother’s body, indicating that he had been tortured.
He had approached the Police Complaints Authority, which directed the state to give Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the family and also conduct an investigation into the circumstances that led to Sreejeev’s death.
However, Sreejith is still waiting for that inquiry. The state government said that they compensated the family with Rs 10 lakh as ordered and wrote to the CBI to investigate. However, the CBI informed them that they could not take up the case.
Yet, Sreejith plans to continue his protest, "Even if it means losing my life on this street, I will not move from here until there is an inquiry into this. If something happens to me, the government is responsible," he said.
Sreejith’s struggle has been noticed on social media, and an online campaign to get him justice has sprung up. Many people have come forward to support him.
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