Kerala rape and murder case: Lapses surface in Jisha probe

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the Jisha murder investigation team dismissed claims of the accused Ameerul Islam that the killer was one Anarul, sources in the police are concerned  about certain loopholes in the probe. However, the investigation team firmly believes that the pieces of evidence collected so far were sufficient to confirm Ameerul’s role in the crime. The discrepancies in the statements of key witnesses, failure to identify a fingerprint and a hair recovered from the crime spot and lack of evidence to link the knife with the accused could be loopholes in the case, a police officer familiar with the probe said.

However, investigation team sources said that all the four male DNAs recovered from the crime scene, including those from Jisha’s nails, confirmed Ameerul’s role. A key witness in the case, Sreelekha, had approved two pictures of the suspect drawn by the police. But none of them  matched with that of Ameerul, which could be one loophole. However, sources said that police had never officially claimed that it was the sketch of the suspect and that they had not even issued any lookout notice based on those sketches. They were drawn as per the inputs given by Sreelekha who spotted a person leaving the crime scene as well as others who spotted a person in suspicious circumstance  nearby Naganchery mana and Iringole mana.

While the failure in recovering the yellow shirt worn by Ameerul at the time of the alleged murder was said to be another possible loophole, sources said that the statements of Ameerul’s roommate and Sreelekha corroborate that he was wearing a yellow shirt.  “Ameerul had been giving different versions regarding the shirt. His final version was that he threw it out of the train while travelling towards Guwahati after the crime. He had changed the dress after the crime,” said sources.

Of the 17 hair samples recovered from the spot, 15 were of Jisha and her mother and one was an animal hair. Since the hairs were recovered from the crime scene only on the third day, it could be of anyone who visited the spot or could have even come through wind. The unidentified fingerprint did not rule out the presence of Ameerul at the crime scene, said sources. While police sources also cite that the investigation procedures were not videographed as mandated by the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, sources said that those were provisions for the benefit of the victim.

“In this case, we had sufficient proof against the accused and hence such loophole may not be entertained by the court in favour of the accused,”  said sources. The team firmly believes that the statement of Ameerul that the real killer was Anarul was yet another attempt to mislead. “From the cellphone records of Ameerul and the statements of his friends and roommate, we strongly believe that it is a fictitious  character,” said sources.