KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has directed the state police chief to inform it of the action taken against police officers, including IPS officer R Nishanthini, then Thodupuzha Assistant Superintendent of Police, in a case pertaining to the alleged torture of a former bank manager by the officer and other policemen.

The court also directed the Thodupuzha Judicial First Class Magistrate Court to expedite the trial in the case. It asked the State Police Chief to state whether the police officers involved in the alleged offence pending before the magistrate court had been granted promotion by “suppressing” the case. The court ordered him to inform it on these matters within 15 days.

The court issued the directive while quashing a criminal case registered against K.I. Muhammed, then assistant sub-inspector.

Percy Joseph Desmond, former manager, Union Bank of India, Thodupuzha branch, had alleged that he was brutally assaulted by Nishanthini and other police personnel at the office of the ASP in Idukki.

The court observed that it had gone through the FIR furnished by the complainant, which depicted the brutality he was allegedly subjected to by the ASP, two policemen, and two women constables.

The court noted that the former bank manager had suffered much pain and utter discomfort. Even though the offences alleged against him were bailable, he was detained unnecessarily till 10 p.m. at the police station. He was assaulted, alleging that he had caught hold of the hand of a woman police constable when she approached him at the bank for a loan. In fact, such an incident was not at all possible in a bank, the court observed. Merely because a loan was not granted to the police officer, the manager was summoned to the ASP’s office and was allegedly beaten up.

The court observed that the incident necessarily invited proper disciplinary action against the culprits. The First Information Statement (FIS) was deliberately suppressed by various police officers, evidently “with a view to screening the offenders from legal punishment”.

The court further said that so far no crime had been registered against the culprits based on the FIS and also against various police officers who had deliberately concealed the FIS. The FIS came to light only because of repeated orders from the High Court.

While directing the High Court Registry to forward the original of the FIS now produced before the court to JFMC, Thodupuzha, for expediting the trial, the court asked the magistrate court to see that the FIS was kept in safe custody, saying that as otherwise, there was every possibility of it being tampered with again.