For the first time since his arrest on June 16, the Kerala Police on Thursday showed before the public Assam native Ameerul Islam (23), so far the only accused in the sensational case pertaining to the brutal rape and murder of a 29-year-old Dalit law student in Perumbavoor, around 45 Km east of Kochi, without mask while taking him to a court.
Islam was produced before the First Class Judicial Magistrate Court, Perumbavoor on Thursday as the period of his police custody ended. The court extended his remand in judicial custody till July 13. In reply to a query, he told the court he had no complaints to make. The Assam native was taken to the Ernakulam District prison at Kakkanad near Kochi late Thursday evening.
The media and the people in Perumbavoor noted that the face of the migrant worker did not bear resemblance to the one shown in the sketches the police had released during the hunt for the killer of the Dalit woman. She was murdered inside her house at Iringole near Perumbavoor on the evening of April 28.
When Ameerul was sighted by the media for the first time while the police were taking him from Thrissur to Aluva, the base camp of the special team probing the rape-murder, he was masked totally. Since then, whenever he was being taken out for evidence-collection or for producing before the court, he was being made to wear a mask or a helmet.
The police took the accused from Aluva to Perumbavoor on Thursday without a mask as per the instruction of the court, which, reminding them about his rights, told them that there was no need to keep him masked anymore as investigation processes like identification parades and evidence-gathering had been completed.
As per the sketch prepared by the police, the accused had curly hair and gaps between the teeth. As the police had questioned hundreds in the Perumbavoor locality in connection with the sensational case, “there was a time when even many locals with curly hair or gaps in teeth had feared to get out of their houses,” said a Perumbavoor resident who had not seen Islam before.
Though the police’s Special Investigation Team headed by Additional DGP B Sandhya is yet to find the yellow T-shirt Islam was said to have been wearing while coming out of the victim’s house after allegedly committing the crime, no application was submitted before the court for getting him in custody further.