Kochi: The protest against alleged police laxity in probing into the mysterious death of CA student Mishel Shaji Varghese (18) a week back is intensifying with the Youth Congress activists threatening to hold a march to the Commissioner's office and an all-party meet scheduled at Piravom on Monday. What has compounded grief of relatives of the deceased is that the police has termed her death as "suicide" after preliminary probe even as many questions remain unanswered regarding her disappearance and subsequent recovery of her body from Kochi backwaters near Ernakulam wharf.
Mishel, a native of Elanji, Periyapuram, Piravom, was pursuing a professional course and staying at Kacheripaddy to study the Chartered Accountancy course. She left the hostel on Sunday evening after telling the authorities that she was going to the Kaloor church. However, there was no information about her after that. Her body was found from premises of the Ernakulam wharf at 8.45 pm on Monday.
"She called home at 3 pm on Sunday (March 5) to say she wanted to come to take her textbook. However, her mother told her that her father was coming to meet her the next morning and she seemed happy. On that day evening she went to Kaloor Novena Church. We got the CCTV images of her entering the church at 5.37 pm on the day and her coming out at 6.01 pm. At the same time, two youths in a bike were also caught in the CCTV before the Church and can be seen following in her direction when she walked out of the church," said Babychan, a relative. However, the CCTV images of a near-by bakery didn't have any images of her walking to the Kaloor bus stop.
"This means something happened here and the police should unravel the mystery," he said. "The cops should probe whether any cheating incident is there behind the incident rather than dismissing the incident as suicide. Her friends had given statement to police that a youth used to harass her. The same should also be probed," said Mebin Baby, counsillor of the ward where the family is based. Anoop Jacob MLA said the Kochi Commissioner would meet the victim's family on Tuesday and that the issue would be raised in assembly too. While the Youth Congress-KSU activists will hold a march from the Ernakulam DCC office to the Commissioner's office on Monday morning, an all party meet is scheduled to be held at Piravom on the same day.
