KOCHI: The Jisha murder case was a hot topic during the state Assembly election campaign last year with various political parties launching a scathing attack on the then Congress-led UDF Government for its failure to nab the culprit. The LDF Government, after assuming power on May 25 last year, constituted a special investigation team and entrusted the probe with ADGP B Sandhya in its first Cabinet meeting itself. SP S Sasidharan was appointed the principal investigating officer.
In its 365-page long order, the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court has lauded the efforts of the special investigation team. “SP Sasidharan and his team has done a good job. Especially, the way they made use of the DNA technology and call detail records to establish the identity of the accused beyond doubt,” the order stated.
The then Ernakulam Rural SP P N Unniraja, SP P K Madhu, SP K S Sudarsan, DySP M J Sojan, DySP S Shamsudheen, CI V Gopakumar and SI T Dileesh are the other members of the investigation team. N K Unnikrishnan is the special public prosecutor in the case.
Though the government did not set up a special court for speedy conduct of the case trial, the Ernakulam District Principal and Sessions Court completed the trial proceedings within 85 days. Amidst the trial of other cases and its routine proceedings, the court considered the Jisha case and wounded up the proceedings. The trial had commenced on March 13, this year.