KOCHI: The Special Investigation Team probing the mysterious death of Mishel Shaji on Thursday informed the Kerala High Court that investigation conducted so far reveals it’s a case of suicide.The probe team filed the report in response to a petition filed by Shaji Varghese, father of the deceased. According to the police, Mishel went for prayers at St Anthony’s Church, Kaloor, on March 5. She left the church at 6.15 pm and travelled all the way to Vallarpadam bridge and at 8 pm jumped into the Vembanad lake and committed suicide. The petitioner submitted that the police story did not match with the facts and available material evidence.
The Crime Branch submitted that, from the postmortem certificate of the case and from the statement of the doctor, it was revealed that no force was exerted on Mishel and there was no indication of rape.
She was instigated by Cronin Alexander, a youth who was familiar to her. He was arrested and later released on bail.
The accused had taken the deceased to various places without the knowledge or consent of her parents or her hostel authorities while she was a juSvenile. Hence, these acts of the accused were offences under Section 354 D IPC and Section 11 (5) of the POCSO Act. A report in this regard was submitted to the court on March 24.