The Kerala Police probing the brutal rape and murder of a 29-year-old Dalit woman, a law student, on April 28 inside her house in Perumbavoor near Kochi had not been able to even identify the culprit(s) though a week had passed since the incident even as the Centre took cognizance of the matter and protests across the State over it intensified.
While Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the probe was progressing in the right direction, the Opposition blasted the claim and demanded constitution of a fresh police team for the probe. Tension prevailed at the base camp of the investigators in Perumbavoor and the hospital where the victim’s mother was admitted throughout Wednesday due to protests.
The police questioned throughout Wednesday the three persons they had detained including the one who was taken into custody from Kannur on Tuesday who they initially believed was the culprit but they got no corroborating evidence or statement from him for his alleged role. The suspect reportedly kept denying all the charges the police put on him during questioning.
Sources said that the police’s inference with regard to the suspect failed to pass even the preliminary tests as his fingerprints did not match either of the two samples of fingerprints collected from the crime scene.
They also said that he had denied even the “evidence” the police had collected for his suspected role.