Dalit woman murder: Kerala police secure CCTV footage

Kochi, June 10: A Special Investigation Team probing the murder of a Dalit woman in nearby Perumbavoor has secured CCTV footage from a shop in the neighbourhood of her residence to examine whether it captured movements of the suspected killer on the day the law student was murdered.

"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.

The official, who did not wish to be named, downplayed local media reports which claimed the CCTV footage secured by police showed the suspected killer following the law student in the neighbourhood of her residence, hours ahead of the incident on April 28.

According to the reports, CCTV evidence secured from the fertiliser depot showed a man wearing a yellow T Shirt following a woman, believed to be the victim, who was on her way home after getting down from a bus at Vattolippady near Perumbavoor around 1.30 PM that day. "It is not sure whether the people found in the footages are related to the incident," the official told PTI when asked about such reports.

Meanwhile, the owner of the fertiliser depot, Shibu, told reporters that the police probing the case took the hard disc of the CCTV footage on Wednesday. Newly appointed Kerala Police chief Loknath Behera, while visiting the house of the 30-year-old woman on Sunday, had said a scientific probe has been launched to nab the culprits involved in the crime.

Noting that the probe into the sensational case was progressing well, he had said it might take some time to nab the criminals.

The case is being investigated by a team headed by ADGP B Sandhya. The newly sworn-in LDF government in one of its first decisions had appointed the senior woman IPS officer as head of the new team to probe the case.

The Kerala High Court had last week rejected the plea for a CBI probe into the case, noting that the new Special Investigation Team had been set up in the case. The woman, who hailed from a poor family, was allegedly raped and brutally assaulted using sharp-edged weapons before being murdered at her house on April 28.

The murder was in focus during the May 16 Kerala Assembly poll campaigns with political parties attacking the then UDF regime for "tardy" progress in the investigation and its failure to nab the culprits.

PTI