IANS
PERAMBAVOOR, MAY 6
Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark on the Jisha murder case was “unfortunate”.
Addressing a National Democratic Alliance rally at Palakkad, Modi said the state government had failed to move forward in the Jisha murder case even after over a week.
It was “most unfortunate that a person like the country’s prime minister was playing politics” in this case, Chennithala told reporters in Idukki.
“Even the Kerala high court on Friday expressed satisfaction over the case’s investigation. The prime minister should not have stooped this low,” said Chennithala.
The high court, while hearing a petition for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into Jisha’s murder said it’s not possible to intervene in the case at this stage since the police probe is on, but cautioned the police not to get caught in the media trial.
Jisha, 27, was suspected to have been sexually assaulted before her murder. Her mutilated body was found by her mother on April 28 near a canal here.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy also said his government is fully satisfied with the ongoing probe.
Additional Director General of Police K. Padmakumar, who is leading the team probing the case, told reporters that leads in the case made it appear as a “planned murder”.
After questioning around a dozen people, police have now focused on migrant labourers, three of whom are in custody. Police are on the lookout for a fourth one.
Police on Friday also conducted raids at a few migrant labour camps in and around Perambavoor.
Meanwhile, union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told an election rally in Kollam on Friday that the Centre will go for a CBI probe if the state government made a request.
12 people held for Dalit woman’s murder in Kerala
The police has so far arrested about a dozen people in connection with the murder last week of Dalit law student Jisha here in Ernakulam district, a case that has become a cause célèbre in the noisy election season in the state.
The latest two suspects to be nabbed includes a neighbour of the victim’s family, a police official said on Friday.
Among others taken into custody are two migrant labourers, the official said, suggesting that the investigation was progressing well.
In a review meeting with the 30-member probe team late on Thursday night, Director General of Police T.P. Senkumar also expressed satisfaction over the progress of the investigation.
The official said that the police has ascertained that the murder took place around 5.45 p.m on April 28 when Jisha’s mutilated body was found by her mother Rajeshwari.
The police believe that the 27-year-old Dalit woman was sexually assaulted before being killed.
Meanwhile, the case continues to be a subject of political theatre in Kerala where voting for the assembly election is scheduled on May 16.
State Congress president V.M. Sudheeran was the first high profile visitor on Friday to visit Jisha’s mother Rajeshwari at a hospital where she has been admitted following the trauma caused by her daughter’s murder.
“This should never ever happen to any mother. The need of the hour is that as and when the police track down the person responsible for this heinous crime, maximum punishment should be handed out to the accused,” said Sudheeran after meeting Rajeshwari.
“What I could find out from her was that this situation could have been avoided had the people’s representatives at all levels discharged their responsibility. The only way Kerala can get away from these sorts of incidents is handing out maximum punishments at a quick pace to people who do such things,” added Sudheeran.
