Six months after Jesna went missing, case likely to be handed over to crime branch

Thiruvananthapuram: Six months after college girl Jesna Maria James went missing, the Kerala Police is mulling about handing over the case to crime branch as the special team led by Inspector General Manoj Abraham failed to find a breakthrough. The second-year degree student of the SD College, Kanjirappally, was last seen on March 22.

Jesna left her house at Kollamula to go to a relative's house at Mundakkayam. She had travelled on a bus up to Erumeli, according to witnesses. Nobody has seen her since then.

The police team investigating the case has collected about 2 lakh mobile and landline phone numbers so far. About 4,000 of these numbers have been closely monitored. About 1,000 numbers have been shortlisted for further inquiry. The sleuths are in the process of obtaining the addresses of the owners of these numbers.

The police team has 35 members, including personnel from the hi-tech cell.

Jesna had not taken her mobile phone with her. Even the call records of the landline at her home did not prove any clue about her. Initially, a special team was followed under the charge of Tiruvalla deputy superintendent of police.

The team searched in various places in Kerala, Kodagu and Bengaluru for possible leads in the case. They stumbled on a valuable lead in Bengaluru where a Malayali security guard at a private firm told them that he had seen the missing woman with a friend.

The investigators found out that Jesna and her friend were involved in a motorcycle accident and they had sought medical treatment at a hospital. However, they could not find any evidence when they searched the hospital. Even the surveillance cameras had not recorded any visual of Jesna. They were working with a false lead. They returned to Kerala after a week of search in Bengaluru.

An array of false leads followed. People started reporting that they had seen someone resembling Jesna at the Bengaluru airport and Metro. The police followed each lead and found they were misled.

The police also got several tip-offs about Jesna from within Kerala. They examined the woman's house, premises and surroundings with the help of the people many times. They sent a team to Kodagu after Jesna was found to have called up a number in the Karnataka district before she went missing.

They also interrogated Jesna's friend who had spoke to her 16 times on the day she went missing. Still they came nowhere near cracking the case.

There were reports that Jesna was captured in a surveillance camera but that was a false lead too. All sorts of conspiracy theories started doing the round. A girl in Mundakkayam who bore close resemblance to Jesna found herself at the centre of unwanted attention.

Revamped team

Kerala police chief Lokanath Behera entrusted Inspector General Manoj Abraham to take charge of the investigation. A larger team was put together on May 27 to find any clue regarding the sensational case. The Pathanamthitta superintendent of police was picked as the operations head of the team and the Tiruvalla deputy superintendent of police the chief investigating officer.

The government raised the reward on any information regarding Jesna from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. Hopes were high when someone reported that Jesna was spotted at Kottakkunnu in Malappuram. That again was a false lead.

The frustrating wait for good news has prompted Jesna's brother to go to court to request for the CBI to take over investigating into the case. The court will take up the plea next month.

Meanwhile, the investigating team has undergone a change. The chief investigating officer, R Chandrasekhara Pillai, retired last month. He has been replaced in the team by the new Tiruvalla deputy superintendent of police, Santhosh Kumar.

“The investigation centred on telephone call records were promising. If we pursue the leads relentlessly, we could get to the accused,” Pillai said.

The team has a large share of experts from the cyber crime cell. “We are yet to get any information on Jesna. We are still on the job,” Pathanamthitta superintendent of police T Narayanan said.

The investigating team has been split into various divisions led by the deputy superintendents of police of Kanjirappalli, Kattappana and Pathanamthitta and the crime detachment superintendent of police in Thiruvananthapuram and the assistant commissioner of police in Kochi.