Funeral of Kerala custodial death victim held after 40 days of protest by family

The funeral of a Kerala farmer, who died under suspicious circumstances while in custody of forest officials, was held on Saturday, following 40 days of protest by his family.

P P Mathai, 40, of Kudappanna near Chittar, about 30 kilometres from Pathanamthitta town, was found dead in a well on July 28 night, hours after he was taken into custody by a team of forest officials on charges of damaging surveillance cameras in the forest. While the forest officials claimed that Mathai jumped into the well after escaping from custody, the family raised suspicions of custodial killing and sought a detailed investigation.

The family members, led by Mathai's wife Sheeba, decided not to hold the funeral until they got justice. Despite pressure from government though various sources, including the church leadership, the family was stern on their plea and approached the Kerala High Court seeking a CBI probe.

Even as the court ordered CBI probe on August 21, the family maintained that they won't hold the funeral until a re-postmortem of the body was conducted. The postmortem initiated by the CBI on Friday with a panel of doctors was reported to have noticed a few additional injury marks on Mathai's body, while the initial postmortem report suggested that Mathai died due to drowning and there were no other unnatural injuries on the body.

Subsequently, the family on Saturday held the funeral with high hopes of getting justice. The body was so far kept at a hospital mortuary.

Mathai was running a farm and was the sole bread winner of the family comprising wife, two daughters, aged mother and two sisters. He was taken into custody without following the mandatory procedures. Two forest officials were earlier placed under suspension. There were also allegations that forest officials tried to manipulate records after Mathai's death became controversial.