The arrest of an Assam native for the brutal murder of a young Dalit woman, a law student, in Perumbavoor has restored to a great extent the pride of the Kerala Police which had suffered a setback in the initial stages of the probe while the new development brought relief to Keralites even as politicians tried to claim the credit for the breakthrough that had come 50 days after the incident.
The heinous murder had led to an explosion of social and political anger throughout Kerala and the case had even become a sensation nationally with the Centre taking active interest in it and Ministers and Central delegations making visits to Perumbavoor. The case also did much damage to the Congress-led UDF, then in power, in the May 16 Assembly election.
The incident was perhaps the most heinous crime reported in Kerala after the murder of 23-year-old woman, who was pushed out of a running train and raped by the railway tracks by a Tamil native in 2011. For the same reason, the public anger towards the police and the then Government had grown by the day as no breakthrough was achieved.
“Now that the culprit has been arrested, he should be hanged after inflicting the same pain he had inflicted on my child,” said the mother of the murdered young woman. “No other mother or family should go through the pain we have gone through. The police should now act effectively to get him maximum punishment,” she said.
“All Keralites have been waiting for this news (of the arrest in the case). It is yet another feather in the cap of the State police,” said Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan whose new lDF Cabinet had at its very first meeting, held on the very day it took charge, constituted the special investigation team headed by Additional DGP B Sandhya 27 days after the incident.
However, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress, who was Home Minister when the incident took place, said, “This proves that the police had been on the right track from the very beginning of the investigation. The evidences which they had collected then were the factors that have now led to the solving of the case.”
But the response of State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was more political in its nature. “This is an approval for the police policy of the new lDF Government. The development is proof for the commitment of the Government to safeguard women’s security. The earlier probe team (under the UDF Government) could do nothing,” he said.
“We are happy to hear that the police have nabbed the actual culprit,” said the elder sister of the murdered law student. “We are happy that we have got the reward for all that grief we have been through,” she said, adding that she did not know the Assamese worker. The police had recorded her statement several times in connection with the incident.
Still there are people who refuse to praise the police for arresting the accused 50 days after the murder. “We had seen how they had handled the case in the initial days. I am sure that every effective thing that has happened in this case is a result of the public anger,” said a native of Perumbavoor.
“The police’s conduct in the initial stages of the probe had shown how the system was looking at atrocities against Dalit and poor women. There should be an end to such atrocities and there should be an end to such attitudes. We should have a society where we need not discuss such things,” said Anitha Nair, a rights activist from Thrissur.