THIRUVANATHAPURAM: O K Indu, research scholar at NIT, Kozhikode, who died mysteriously during a train journey after drowning in the Periyar, was cremated at her ancestral house at Gandhipuram near Sreekaryam here on Friday.
She was the daughter of Krishnan Nair and Omana Kunjamma, both of them retired public servants.
The body was brought to her home at Kumarapuram in the city around 4.30 p.m. on Friday from the Alappuzha Medical College Hospital where an autopsy was conducted. It was kept at her house for about 30 minutes for friends and relatives to pay respects, following which it was taken to her ancestral home at Gandhipuram and cremated around 5.30 p.m.
According to her relatives, the body was cremated immediately since it was already in a putrefied state.
The doctors who conducted the autopsy had advised them that it was better to cremate the body without keeping it exposed for more time.
Political leaders, including Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy, V S Shivakumar, Varkala Kahar, M A Wahid, Mohanachandran, Thampanoor Ravi, C Ajayakumar and Minister P K Sreemathi visited her family and expressed their condolence.
Indu, had gone missing from the AC coach of the Mangalore Express train during her journey to Kozhikode from Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.
The police had launched a massive search along the railway track across the state for her, after Subhash, her colleague who was also travelling along with her, reported the matter to the police.
On Thursday evening, the police recovered her body from the Periyar at
Kozhikkadavu. The body was identified by her uncles Gopinathan Nair and Radhakrishnan Nair.
Meanwhile, the Kozhikode police once again interrogated Subhash, hoping to unravel the mystery behind her death.
The police, who suspect Indu to have committed suicide, are probing into whether Subhash had any role to play in the death.
They also searched her room on the NIT campus and recovered her personal diary and laptop which were sent to the Forensic Science LaboratSimultaneously, the Cyber Cell of the state police is also working to recover the deleted data from the two mobile phones owned by Indu. Earlier, the body of Indu was handed over to her family after postmortem examination at the Alappuzha MCH.The body was brought to the Alappuzha MCH from Aluva around 11 a.m. The postmortem examination was conducted by a team of doctors led by police surgeon Dr Sreekumari.
According to the preliminary report, Indu's death was a case of drowning.
The body was identified by her uncles around 8 p.m. on Thursday, when it was recovered from the Periyar at Kozhikkakadavu within Chengamanad police station limits near Aluva and was kept at Chungamkadavu under police guard on Thursday night.