Kochi: The mystery surrounding the murder of Jisha thickened with new evidence suggesting that the law student was trying to expose a land deal that threatened to evict the families which lived on the banks of a canal.
Jisha had collected documents related to the deal in her neighbourhood two weeks before she was murdered in her house near Perumbavoor on April 28, the police have learned.
Strangely enough, the local police had learned that copies of the documents related to the deal went missing from Jisha’s ramshackle house in the brief time before the crime scene was sealed off.
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The cops had not reported the crucial piece of evidence to the superiors in a bid to cover up the lapse as the news of the brutal murder snowballed into a poll-time controversy.
Jisha’s role in organising about 50 families living on the banks of the canal to resist attempts to evict them has come into focus with the new revelation. The families have been living on the public land without any proper documents for about 30 years. Jisha and her mother Rajeswari had been instrumental in warding off the real estate dealers’ attempts to clear them off the area.
Jisha had gone to the sub registrar’s office seeking details on some land deals in the Vattolippadi area near Kuruppampadi two weeks before she was murdered. The police are looking into the deals that piqued the interest of the law student.
The investigating team has put under the scanner goons attached to the real estate agents as well as a Perumbavoor native who was arrested from a house in Kanjikuzhi in Idukki district.
The man who had a striking resemblance to the suspect’s sketch prepared by the police was arrested on Thrusday, the police said. He had been staying in Kanjikkuzhi for about a month.
The police stumbled upon the man accidentally when they had gone to investigate a spat on Wednesday night. The cops recording the statements of the residents of the area noted the similarities between the suspect’s sketch and a domestic help in one of the houses. The injury marks on his body added to the suspicion.
He also resembled the image captured on a surveillance camera in the Kottayam Medical College, which is suspected to be that of Jisha’s killer who had sought treatment in the hospital.
The suspect has been handed over to the special investigation team led by additional director general of police B. Sandhya.
Meanwhile, Jisha’s father K.V. Pappu met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram to seek action against the policemen who tampered with evidence in the murder case. He urged the chief minister to suspend Perumbavoor deputy superintendent of police K Anil Kumar, Kuruppampadi circle inspector K.N. Rajesh and sub-inspector Sony Mathai and subject them to an inquiry.
Pappu has alleged that they deliberately tried to destroy evidence in the initial days of the probe to help influential people with links to the murder.
