Chennai: The policemen from Kerala who took Jisha murder accused Ameer ul-Islam to the suburbs of Kanchipuram to collect evidence had a tough time dealing with the angry locals who insisted on seeing his face.
Islam was arrested from Sinkidivakkam, a small village 70 kilometre off Chennai, 50 days after Jisha was murdered and mutilated in her house near Perumbavoor. He was working in an auto parts factory for almost a month after fleeing Kerala on April 28.
Read: 'Why did you kill my girl?', Jisha's mother asks Ameer and he has an answer
Jisha murder: 2 months & an arrest later, gaps and more gaps
The police took him to the place he stayed to corroborate his statements. His face was covered in a black cloth as required by criminal procedures. A small crowd had gathered by noon after they heard that the migrant laborer was being brought to the village.
"Let us see his face. Then we would know him. We want to know if he had done something wrong here," a young man in the crowd told the policemen.
The five policemen accompanying the accused explained that they were just following the norms and the face of the accused was covered wherever he was taken.
Islam told the police that he lived in a nine-room building and he shared a room with four others. The people said five people were put up in a room in the asbestos-covered building.
The police could not meet the owner of the building as he was away. The police had to break into the room where Islam stayed.
Around 2,000 migrant laborers are estimated to live in the area but none of them were around when Islam was brought here.
Even the laborers who stayed in the building had gone away. The local people said the place was occupied even a fortnight ago. The migrants have left the place following frequent visits by the cop in the aftermath of the arrest of Islam.