The Kerala Police continued their struggle to identify and nab the culprit behind the brutal rape and murder of a 29-year-old Dalit law student in Perumbavoor near Kochi for the eighth consecutive day, Thursday. The poor Dalit woman was raped and murdered at her small house in Iringole, Perumbavoor on April 28.
Despite the claims by the police top brass that crucial leads had been collected about the culprit and that a confirmation could be made by late Thursday night, members of the Special Investigation Team could be seen holding inspections in places adjoining the victim’s house, suggesting that they could be still groping in the dark.
Sources said that the police had now come to the conclusion that the culprit was a person who had been an acquaintance of the victim earlier. The investigators had put under surveillance some workers who had been involved in the construction of the victim’s house and those who had worked with her earlier at a hospital in Perumbavoor.
“There are clear leads. We are examining them… We are at work,” said Inspector General of Police Mahipal Yadav heading the probe team on Thursday. Director General of Police TP Senkumar, who said that the probe team was constituted with efficient officials, was expected to reach Perumbavoor late Thursday night.
The probe had so far been centered mainly around a youth, a resident of the victim’s village, since his detention from Kannur on Tuesday but the police were unable to find any conclusive evidence for his role till Thursday evening. Also, the interrogation of a relative of the victim and another person failed to produce any results.
In this context, the probe team which was expanded the other day, started inspections at the camps of the migrant workers in the area. The police also began collecting information from the neighbourhood on the basis of a statement that somebody had heard a loud from the victim’s house on the day of the incident.
Meanwhile, the pressure on the police mounted as more dignitaries from the Centre arrived in Perumbavoor to assess the situation and expressed unhappiness over the progress of the probe. Those who visited Perumbavoor on Thursday included National Women’s Commission chairperson lalitha Kumaramangalam.
“It (the probe) has taken very long. Even now they haven’t been able to identify the culprit,” said Kumaramangalam after visiting the victim’s mother at the Taluk Hospital in Perumbavoor. “I will meet the DGP personally. There seem to be several angles to this. I am requesting the local people to cooperate with the probe,” she said.
After visiting the place on Thursday morning, Union Social Justice Minister Tawarchand Gehlot said that he would report on the matter to the Rajya Sabha on Friday. “I have to make my report to Parliament, the Rajya Sabha. I cannot make any disclosures on it now,” he added. Gehlot had decided to visit the State after the issue was discussed in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
In the meantime, a preliminary inquiry by the Principal, Government Medical College, Alappuzha found that serious flaws had been committed by the Forensic Department of the college in the procedures of autopsy of the body of the law student. The inquiry report said that the required seriousness was not shown in the procedure.
An associate professor should be present at the autopsy throughout the procedure as per norms but this norm had not been adhered to in this case, the report said. It is said that the autopsy was carried out by post-graduate students of the Alappuzha medical college.