No scope for DNA test in Jishnu case

Thrissur: The investigation into the Jishnu Pranoy suicide case has suffered a setback with the Forensic Science Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram saying the sample collected by the police from the ‘torture room’ was insufficient to conduct a DNA test. Rural police chief N. Vijayakumar who heads the special investigation team said that they received a report from FSL saying citing their inability to conduct the test.

“The investigation is on and we have not yet reached the stage to file the chargesheet,” he added. The SIT had found the bloodstains in the ‘torture’ room on February 16 during their last round of inspection after Jishnu Pranoy was found hanging in the toilet of his hostel room on January 6. The students who questioned the rules of the college were allegedly beaten up by the college authorities in this room. The SIT had collected the blood samples of Jishnu Pranoy’s parents on March 14 after the bloodstains collected from the college were found matching with Jishnu’s group.

Jishnu’s uncle K.K. Sreejith said that while collecting the blood samples of Jishnu’s parents  at Nadapuram taluk hospital, the SIT had said in writing that the samples were collected for DNA test.  “Sources close to the investigation team had told us that the blood samples  collected from the ‘torture’ room were  O-positive which is Jishnu’s group.”“We believe that some persons in the SIT deliberately sent less quantity of bloodstains to the lab. If the DNA test confirms that the bloodstains were of Jishnu, the suicide would have become  a murder case,” he noted.

He also said that several forensic experts had told him that if the blood group could be identified, the DNA test could also be done with the same quantity of blood.