KOTTAYAM: Yet to make any headway in its probe into the disappearance of college student Jesna Maria James, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has strengthened its efforts to find a useful link to unveil the mystery. The BCom student from Vechoochira in Pathanamthitta went missing on March 22.Meanwhile, the police denied rumours of searching an under-construction house in Endayar near Mundakayam, on the lines of the Mohanlal-starrer ‘Drishyam’.
There were reports the SIT mined the house last Sunday to unearth any evidence or a body, following the ‘leads’ received from ‘information collection boxes.’ Pathanamthitta district police chief T Narayanan, who is holding the operational charge of the investigation, told Express the SIT did not conduct any such search.
“The team is re-validating the leads it got through the ‘information collection boxes’ installed at 12 locations in Kottayam, Idukki and Pathanamthitta districts. At the same time, SIT is also taking all efforts to get any lead through the Cyber wing of the Kerala Police,” said Narayanan.“Though we got around 50 leads from the information boxes within five days, only a couple of them were positive, and that too appeared feeble. We are working on it and cannot say it is useful at this juncture,” Narayanan said.
Students under surveillance
The SIT has put some students and other persons under surveillance. They include those who contacted Jesna shortly before she went missing. The team also grilled several of them on multiple occasions. Earlier, the SIT, in coordination with the police wings of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, conducted massive search operations across various cities in the states, including Chennai, Bengaluru, Goa and Pune. “We extended our investigation to the cities as per the information received from various places,” Narayanan said.