Kochi: The Special Investigation Team’s ‘breakthrough’ in the Perumbavur murder case kicked off a fresh controversy as local women denied the police theory of revenge for slighting the suspect near the local bathing site on April 27. Initially, police sources claimed that the accused was offended when the victim made fun of him when he was slapped by a woman bathing in the canal ghat near her house on the day before the heinous crime.
However, locals denied any such incident and went on to say that they never had any trouble from migrant labourers. “It’s true Jisha came daily to the Chakila-mparambu canal ghat, 200 metres way from her house, to take bath. However, none of us had any trouble from any person there,” said a neighbour of the victim.
“The story put up by the police is inconclusive as there are several questions to be answered. Even when the police say the accused and the victim knew each other for some time, her mother and sister continue to maintain that they are unaware of this. This even when the mother had named many persons as suspects,” said Syed Mohammed, who had led the protest council seeking justice for the victim.
There is no clarity on the relationship between Jisha and the suspect. Another police version is that the accused had given liquor when the victim had pleaded for water minutes before she bled to death. Nothing in this regard was found in the post mortem or inquest report. A blood sample test done at Hyderabad lab found alcohol content. Even if one believes this version, she died in a few seconds and the alcohol could not have entered her blood. The alcohol content in blood can be found only after several hours.
Meanwhile, DGP Loknath Behera admitted that nabbing the killer was only one aspect of the investigation and that the investigation team has a tough task ahead of them to prove it conclusively through scientific and circumstantial evidences for successful prosecution. “We are focused in collecting strong evidence and also probing whether more people are linked with the case,” he told reporters at Nedumbassery airport.
