Kochi: Cronin Alexander, 26, who was arrested on the charges of abetting the suicide of CA student Mishel Shaji, 18, had behaved harshly with her and she had even thought of backing out of the relationship with him, according to her close friends in Chennai and Bengaluru, whose stat-ements were recorded by the Crime Branch. A special team of the Crime Branch took the youth to Chhattisgarh, where he was working, as part of evidence collection. The team will inquire whether the accused used any other phone or SIM to contact the girl. A probe is also on to find out whether he had taken any selfie images of both of them, sources said.
Earlier, her friends had given an online statement to the police team. They did not believe that Mishel had taken the extreme step herself.Mishel’s close friend in Chennai had phoned her on March 5 morning, the day she went missing, and she appeared happy then. Mishel even told her that she would meet her on March 27 when she planned to come to Chennai. Meanwhile, Cronin reiterated his statement to the Crime Branch team that he had given to the police earlier. He said that he had no role in the girl’s death and claimed that there was some “misunderstanding” between them, but it was nothing serious. The team will also attempted to recover Mishel’s mobile phone which might have fallen into the Kochi backwaters.
