Ernakulam Range IG Mahipal Yadav has said only one person was involved in the case relating to the murder of law student Jisha in Perumbavoor. He told media persons on Tuesday that there were persons who had seen the killer entering Nisha’s house. “Two persons were arrested out of suspicion but whether they are the real culprits is yet to be confirmed,” he said.
Those in the custody are being questioned and information is being elicited from them. The real culprit will be arrested within two days, according to the IG.
The murder of 30-year-old Jisha, a Dalit girl pursuing graduation in law, is believed to have happened on Thursday afternoon, and came to light only after her mother Rajeswari came home from work to find her daughter lying dead in their one-room home near Perumbavur, roughly 15 kilometres from the Kochi international airport.
The police is also questioning Jisha’s elder sister’s husband. He is being questioned for the second time as there were suspicious elements in his first statements. There are people who have seen near the crime scene on the fateful day.
In the poll-focused state, the news hardly made headlines the following day, and the grisly details are only trickling in, five days after the incident.
Rajeswari’s estranged husband has been living elsewhere for several years. Jisha has a sister who is married.
More than the murder, it is the sheer brutality that the girl suffered that has numbed the state, and even triggered a ‘Justice-for-Jisha’ campaign on social media.
Meanwhile, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala who had gone to visit Nisha’s mother in Perumbavoor hospital was heckled by DYFI protestors. They alleged that the arrest of the real murderer was not happening because of police’s negligence. Later the protestors were calmed down by the minister’s assurance that the person responsible for the heinous crime would soon be arrested.
By now people, students, women’s group, organisations and political activists have come out on the streets to spread the fire of protest against the incident. Kaladi Sanskrit college students took out a march to Perumbavoor police station. Students’ march to Ernakulam IG office was, but, blocked by the police.
Special campaigns and hash tag campaigns under the title ‘Justice for Nisha’, asking the government to bring the real culprit before the law soon, are also under way.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy broke his silence earlier on Tuesday, five days after Jisha’s body was found in her house. Describing the murder as a brutal one that shook the state, he said, “Strict action would be taken against Jisha’s killers.”
