Kochi: Amid mounting protests over delay in arresting those involved in the brutal rape and murder of a Dalit woman, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday visited the ailing mother of the victim admitted to a hospital in Perumbavoor and said the culprits would be brought to justice at the earliest.
The Chief Minister, who reached the hospital amid protest by DYFI activists alleging lapses in the probe, consoled the mother of the victim and said steps would be taken to provide a government job to the victim's sister to support her family.
"I assure you that the culprit behind this brutal crime would be brought to justice," Chandy said.
Read: Rajya Sabha MPs express concern over rape-murder of Kerala law student
Dismissing suggestions that the case has been weakened due to delay in arresting the culprits, the Chief Minister said, "Nothing will block the strong legal action. I assure you government Will take it as a very serious thing and we will book the culprits and bring them before the law".
Three persons have been taken into custody by police for questioning in connection with the rape and brutal murder of the 30-year-old Dalit woman in Ernakulam district.
The woman, a law student who hailed from a poor family, was allegedly subjected to rape and brutal assault using sharp edged weapons before being murdered at her house in Perumbavoor on April 28.
No formal arrest has been made yet in the crime that shocked the state triggering intense politicking ahead of the May 16 Assembly polls.
Ernakulam Range IG Mahipal Yadav has said there were signs of strangulation, smothering and 13 injuries on the woman's neck, chest and at several other places of the body.
Some reports said the victim sustained around 20 injuries and her intestines were pulled out.
The crime has been dubbed "Kerala's Nirbhaya" for its chilling similarities to the 2012 gangrape of a young paramedic student in a moving bus. The girl later succumbed to her injuries.
Women's rights activists and political leaders, cutting across party lines, have voiced concern over the murder which they believe was a first of its kind in the state for the sheer brutality of the crime.
Meanwhile, veteran Marxist and opposition leader in the state assembly V S Achuthanandan lashed out at Chandy and police for the delay in arresting the culprits involved in the murder.
He urged the state Government to constitute a new investigation team to arrest the accused. "I don't think the team currently probing the case would be able to nab the real culprit. A new probe team should be constituted. Are you sincere about it?" Achuthanandan told reporters after visiting the victim's ailing mother.
"Whatever the Chief Minister and his police are saying...that is not having any link with the truth. A serious investigation could be launched only after five or six days after the brutal rape and murder. So we cannot agree with the statements of the Chief Minister and police," the 93-year-old CPI(M) leader said, hours after the Chief Minister visited her at the hospital amid tight security.
The mother broke down in Achuthanandan's presence and asked whether justice would be done to her daughter.
She also asked whether the killer of her daughter would be arrested and brought to justice.
