Forensic study casts mystery on skeleton recovered from Kottayam

Forensic study casts mystery on skeleton recovered from Kottayam

Kottayam: The forensic examination of the skeleton found in a property owned by the Sahitya Pravarthaka Cooperative Society in Mariyappally, close to MC Road outside the Kottayam town, has cast a mystery on the identity of the deceased.

The police had earlier said that based on their investigations, they had found out that the body belonged to Jishnu Haridas (23) a native of Kudavathoor, Vaikom.

The forensic examination, however, could not ascertain the age of the body and neither could it determine when the death may have happened.

There is a need for more advanced study, including DNA tests, to arrive at a conclusion, forensic experts said.

However, the clothes that were found with the skeleton belonged to Jishnu.

On Saturday morning, relatives had confirmed that the clothes, purse and phone found on the body and near it belonged to Jishnu. 

Based on this information and the investigations they conducted into a footwear and mobile phone they had recovered from near the body, the police had concluded that the body belonged to the Vaikom resident.

But with the forensic procedures carried out as part of the official investigation contradicting their claim, the police are now waiting for a detailed study of the skeleton.

Jishnu, who was employed with a bar-cum-hotel at Kumarakom, had gone missing on June 3.

Jishnu had gone till the bar that day but returned immediately on a bus to Kottayam. In the bus, he was constantly on the phone, the conductor told the police.

The skeleton was found about 9 am on Friday by people who were clearing weeds from a section of the Sahitya Pravarthaka Cooperative Society’s property that had once housed its India Press. The society is a collective of authors in Kerala.

The workers informed the police about the body that was lying under a tree near the old canteen building of the press.

The flesh of the body had decomposed. The police found the remains of cloth from the tree and they suspect them to be from the shirt Jishnu was wearing. The skeleton still had some parts of the jeans he was wearing.

The police also found the footwear and the mobile phone near the body.

The spot where the skeleton was found was used to dump poultry waste, and its odour would have overpowered the stench of the decomposing body, the police said.

Also, the place was filled with weeds and people avoided going there, they said.

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