KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday ordered a CBI probe into the disappearance of Jasna Mariya James, a second-year B Com student at St. Dominic College, Kanjirapally, who went missing from her home at Ranni in Pathanamthitta district on March 22, 2018. The court also directed the state to provide adequate infrastructural facilities to CBI.
Justice VG Arun issued the order while allowing the petition filed by Abhijith, State President of Kerala Students Union and Jaise John, brother of the missing woman, seeking a CBI probe in the case.
When the petition came up for hearing, the CBI submitted that on going through the report of the Crime Branch in the case, it was revealed that this is a serious and intriguing case. There seems to be interstate involvement in the matter, warranting the CBI to take over the case.
Citing manpower shortage in the CBI, P Vijayakumar, Assistant Solicitor General of India, sought to issue an order directing the state to provide sufficient infrastructural facilities in the form of manpower and transportation facilities. The court accepted the plea of CBI. The court also ordered the state government to hand over the case diary and all files relating to the case to CBI forthwith.
The crime branch had informed the court that it was too early to make a decision in the matter of completion of the investigation and file a report before the court as undetected. All possible measures have been taken to trace the missing girl by the State Crime Branch, but the efforts turned out to be futile.
The agency also stated the difficulties it faced in tracing the missing student. According to it, there was no reason for her to leave home and it did not find Jasna having any relationship with boys other than friendship. Her friend deposed that she sent him a message that she was going to die and no other evidence was available other than his statement. The contents of Jasna's phone message to that friend could not be retrieved, stated the Crime Branch.
The Crime Branch had verified the CCTV footage at Karinilam where Jasna was last seen. The footage was thoroughly checked and listed out the autorickshaws which passed in between 10.30 am to 11.05 am towards Punchavayal on that day.
A total of 28 autorickshaws were listed out and drivers of those autorickshaws were questioned. The antecedents and whereabouts of those drivers were verified and it was found that in the autorickshaw of one Noushad and one Linse, a passenger wearing blue jeans was sitting.
The CCTV footage was developed by using modern techniques and cleared the photographs. It was shown to Jefy, sister of Jasna, neighbour Lovely and her daughter Amitha. They opined that it was not Jasna. Jefy stated that at the time of missing, Jasna had worn a green churidar top with dark shades and dark leggings.
On January 23, 2019, the friend list on Jasna's Facebook page was verified with the help of her brother Jais and it was found that 62 friends in the list were known to Jais out of 136. Inquiries were made about the remaining friends on the list and no fruitful information was obtained regarding Jasna, the crime branch submitted.