Kochi/Thiruvananthapuram:
Two persons have been taken into custody in connection with the rape and brutal murder of a 30-year-old dalit woman at Perumbavoor that sparked protest marches by students and rights activists across Kerala today condemning the incident.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy described the crime as “shocking” and said the culprits will be brought to book.
Police said two persons were taken into custody and were being questioned by a police team, headed by Ernakulam Range IG Mahipal Yadav. However, it was not yet known whether they are the real culprits. No details of the ongoing investigation have been revealed by police.
According to police, the woman, a law college student, hailing from a poor family was raped and brutally assaulted using sharp edged weapons before being murdered at her house at Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district on April 28. She was found dead in a pool of blood at her one room home at 8 PM on April 28 by her mother when she returned from work.
The crime has been dubbed “Kerala’s Nirbhaya” for its chilling similarities to the gang-rape in 2012 of a young Delhi student on a moving bus. The girl later succumbed to her injuries.
Kerala State Commission for Scheduled Caste and Tribes registered a suo motu case into the incident and asked police to submit a report on the progress of the probe by May 28 while the Kerala Human Rights Commission ordered that the probe be handed over to the Crime branch.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the case on the basis of media reports, state Human Rights Commission Chairman Justice J B Koshy issued a direction to the state DGP in this regard.
“Kerala is shocked by the brutal murder of a young woman.
The culprits will be brought to book and the severest punishment will be ensured to those who involved into the incident,” Chandy said.
Condemning the crime as a ‘heinous one’, chairman of the state commission for scheduled castes and tribes, Justice P N Vijayakumar said he has sought formation of a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident.
“The commission suo-motu registered a case into the incident based on the reports of the vernacular and national dailies. I asked DGP to form a SIT to probe into the case. I also asked police to submit a report of the progress of the case by May 28,” Justice Vijayakumar told PTI in Thiruvanathapuram.
The commission also suggested that special mobile squads such as those operating in Wayanad, Palakkad and Kasaragod be formed for the safety of SCs and STs, in all districts of the state for the security of women and children irrespective of caste barriers.
Women’s rights activists and political leaders, cutting across party lines, have voiced concern against the murder which they believe was a first of its kind in the state for the sheer brutality of the crime.
Students and rights activists took out protest marches in various parts of the state condemning the incident. Students of Kerala University at Thiruvanathapuram broke pots, considering it as the symbol of cruelty shown by society towards women, to mark their protest. Protests were also held by Law college students at Ernakulam.
State Women’s Commission Chairperson K C Rosakutty said she would take all necessary steps to pressure police to nab all those behind the brutal act at the earliest. Terming the incident as ‘devilish’, CPI(M) leader and Lok Sabha MP, P K Sreemathi said no other women in the state should be subjected to such a cruelty any more.
“It is one of the most brutal attacks against a woman in the state. It is the same as that had happened to the hapless Nirbhaya in Delhi. It is shocking that the public and media came to know about the incident only five days after the incident,” she told PTI.
She also alleged that police tried to cover up the incident fearing that it would affect the prospects of the Congress-led UDF government in the run up to the May 16 assembly polls.
Sreemathy wondered why Chandy had failed to visit the Dalit woman’s house and console her mother, who is bedridden after the death of her daughter.
Mahila Congress State President Bindhu Krishna said, “Brutal rapes and murders are being repeated. Men are showing the courage to repeat such offences as the law does not hand over the deserved punishments in such cases,” she said.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has left for Perumbavoor from his constituency Harippad in Alappuzha to visit the victim’s mother.
