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Handing the new Left Democratic Front Government its first tangible achievement after coming to power on May 26, the Kerala Police have cracked the mystery surrounding the highly politicised, brutal rape and murder of a young Dalit woman. The case was a key campaign issue in the Assembly elections.
Migrant worker Police on Thursday arrested a 23-year-old migrant worker from Assam, Ameerul Islam, for the April 28 murder of 30-year-old Jisha, a law student, at her home near Perumbavoor, 35 km from Kochi. The investigators had picked up Ameer from Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu a couple of days ago. Police claimed Islam had admitted to killing Jisha to avenge an insult. He will be presented in court on Friday.
A DNA test of the blood smear on footwear left behind by the killer, and the sweat on Jisha’s dress are said to have provided clues to the police. Right from the beginning, the police had focussed its suspicion on the migrant worker community of Perumbavoor, which has the largest such population in Kerala.
Political attention The investigating team has been under huge pressure from the media, political parties and various interest groups to nab the culprit. The murder had caught national attention because of its seeming resemblance to the December 2012 rape and murder of ‘Nirbhaya’ in Delhi, and because the murder had taken place during peak poll season.
Opposition parties, especially the BJP, had made the ‘Jisha murder case’ a key campaign issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while campaigning in Kerala, had also raised the issue. The LDF had also tried to extract electoral capital out of the murder. However, its candidate from Perumbavoor, sitting MLA Saju Paul, lost the election even as the LDF romped home to victory elsewhere. A harsh remark by Jisha’s mother against Paul, which was played up by his opponents throughout the campaign, did the damage.
One of the first decisions of the LDF government took after taking over was to reconstitute the probe team by tasking B Sandhya, one of the State’s top officers, with the investigation. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is also the Home Minister, termed the arrest as ‘golden feather in Kerala Police’s cap’.
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