The suspect is said to have confessed to his crime later.
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The police officers in charge of the initial investigation were castigated for the callous manner in which evidence was allowed to be destroyed.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who also handles the Home portfolio, has confirmed the arrest.
Kochi: The main suspect in the rape and murder of Jisha, the Dalit LLB student in Kuruppampady near Perumbavoor, is in police custody, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday. They await the DNA results of the suspect to check whether they match with the samples of saliva and blood found on her body, before revealing the exact location of the investigation. Her mother had found the woman’s body at their home with her intestines pulled out.
“Investigation team has received full information about the accused”.
The rape, which took place on 28 April, was a terrifying reminder of the Nirbhaya gang-rape in Delhi, and had triggered protests across the country, with several political parties demanding a CBI probe.
A change in the investigating team was the first decision announced by the CPM-led LDF government which took office on May 25 and the investigation was handed over to a team led by ADGP B Sandhya.
The Police also examined migrant workers who were believed to have been employed in the vicinity of the Jisha’s house on Sunday. Police sources say Jisha had thwarted a sexual advance from the suspect earlier on the same day when she was raped and murdered.
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“We have secured the CCTV camera details from the shop hoping that it might have captured visuals of the suspected killer”, a senior police official probing the case said. Even DGP T.P. Senkumar was replaced by Loknath Behra.
