Ernakulam: The Kerala High Court directed to hand over the Jesna Maria James missing case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday. The case was earlier being investigated by the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police and had made little headway.

Jesna, a native of Kollamula in Pathanamthitta district, went missing in March, 2018. She was a second-year BCom student at the St Dominic's College in Kanjirappally.

Though a special police team was deployed to probe the missing case, no information could be gathered about her whereabouts.

After Jesna's brother approached the High Court in November 2018, seeking a CBI probe, the government handed over the case to the Crime Branch.

The CBI had told the HC that the case has interstate connections.
The court also asked the police to handover the case diary to the CBI.

The case

Jesna had left home to visit a relative's house at Punchavayal in Mundakayam on March 22, 2018. She reportedly went till Erumely in a private bus. There is no information about her whereabouts since.

Her father gave a complaint at the Erumely police station on the day Jesna went missing, and at the Vechoochira station the next day.

Jesna had not taken the mobile phone with her on the day she left home. Though a probe was held over the phone at the house, no evidence was found. As the probe was not progressing, the special team was formed under the Thiruvalla DySP.

During the probe, two lakh landline-mobile numbers were collected. Of which, 4000 numbers were checked in detail.

The police carried out investigations at Kodagu and Bengaluru. Though a security guard had said that he had seen Jesna and a friend at a firm in Bengaluru, it was later confirmed that the girl was not Jesna.

After receiving inputs that Jesna had been spotted at the Bengaluru airport and metro, the police went to Bengaluru several times and checked the CCTV visuals. But none of those visuals were of Jesna.

The police had questioned a male friend of Jesna, who had called her 16 times on the day she went missing. But the police said they got no leads, despite questioning him several times.

A cash reward of Rs 5 lakh was also announced for those who came forth with any information.