Mishel Shaji Varghese and Cronin Alexander BabyPiravom: Amid cries for justice from the public and opposition parties, the Kerala police continued to insist Monday that 18-year-old Mishel Shaji Varghese, found dead in the waters off the Kochi wharf recently, had committed suicide.
The police arrested Cronin Alexander Baby, a relative of the girl, on Monday on the charge of abetment to suicide.
Also read: Mishel Shaji's death: family rejects police's suicide theory
The youth, a Piravom native, was in a relationship with the girl for nearly 2 years, the police said. Their relationship was going through a rough patch and the youth, who was working in Chhattisgarh, had been continuously trying to contact Mishel before she went missing.
“Mishel told the youth that she had taken some decisions regarding their relationship and that she will tell him about it on March 6, Monday. We also got a statement from a female friend of Mishel that she once saw the youth hitting the girl,” police sources said.
Did Kochi police goof up in Mishel case? Her father says so
Suicide or murder? Mishel's family won't let police to close the case yet
The youth sent 57 SMSes to Mishel on March 4, a day before she went missing and 32 SMSes the next day, the police said. He called her four times on March 4 and six times on March 5. She was found dead on March 6.
The police believe that Mishel was in severe mental trauma and that it led her to the extreme step.
Mishel's father rejects suicide theory
However, when Manorama News spoke to Mishel's father, Shaji Varghese, on the latest development, he said that there had been a conscious attempt on part of the police to make the death a suicide.
