Kerala youth on 2-year protest gets CBI to investigate brother’s death

Thiruvananthapuram: A youth in Kerala, who has been on protest in front of the state secretariat for more than 770 days demanding a CBI probe into his brother’s death, is now close to realising his demand.

Puthenveettil Sreejith, 30, has been on a hunger strike in the state capital for over two years, demanding a CBI probe in the custodial death of his brother P. Sreejiv in May 2014.

The CBI will register a case regarding the custodial death on Wednesday and the Thiruvananthapuram unit of the agency will be in charge of the probe. An official notification has been issued in this regard.

Sreejiv died in a hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, but his brother believes he died of police torture. Sreejith says his brother was taken into custody after a case of theft was slapped on him because Sreejiv had been in a relationship with a woman, and that one of her relatives who was a policeman had played a role in taking him into custody on trumped-up charges.

Police claim that Sreejiv died after consuming poison while in custody, but Sreejith alleges that his brother had died following police brutality while in custody.

Sreejith was fighting a forlorn battle for more than two years, when all of a sudden his fight for justice caught the attention of social media recently. When his tale set the social media afire, the political leadership was also shaken awake.

Among those who flocked to Sreejith’s support were many film stars and other prominent personalities. The capital city also witnessed a rally in support of the cause.

Sreejith said he would call off his strike only if there was clarity with regard to the investigation. The political leadership, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, had requested him to call off the protest, but Sreejith has insisted he will do so only after the investigation begins.

Over the past fortnight, Sreejith has been a social media star, with numerous people voicing support for him. One of them commented, “It is difficult to visualise someone undergoing such suffering to fight for his deceased brother. It is unlikely that we will see a bigger hero than this”.