Even as the Kerala police, on Tuesday, took into custody the missing neighbour in the rape-murder of a Dalit law student at Perumbavoor near Kochi, the Congress-led government in the state is finding it hard to explain the laxity in handling the barbaric crime.

It was only on Tuesday, six days after the almost chilling replay of the Nirbhaya incident – which took place in the country's capital in 2012 – that the police finally cordoned off the house as a crime scene.

Ernakulam range IG Mahipal Yadav said that probe team strongly suspects that the girl was killed by a single person. The neighbour of the 30-year-old girl, who went missing since the incident happened on April 28, was arrested from the northern district of Kannur.

Already two persons are in police custody in connection with the murder. One is dance master of the victim and the other a person who had worked with her at a private hospital.

Police said that she was raped and killed when she was alone in her single-room home on the bank of an irrigation canal. The neighbourhood came to know about the murder when her mother, serving as a domestic help, returned home after day's work. Her father had abandoned the family when she was a child. Her only sister, a divorcee, is living with her maternal grandmother in a nearby village.

A police officer, who is a member of the investigating team, told dna on condition of anonymity that the victim's genital was mutilated by inserting sharp iron rod like object which had broken her backbone. Her nose was smashed off. Her abdomen was slit open and there were deep stab wounds on her breasts. Her neck bore 13 injuries. In all, there were 20 injuries on her body.

What is more shocking is police inaction in probing the case. Though the girl was murdered on April 28, police swung into action only by May 2 when the social media reacted sharply. Local residents said that police were not keen in investigating the case initially. They also said that the girl's mother had earlier lodged complaints with the police against a few local youths who tried to molest the girl and attacked her house. But police did not take them seriously.

State home minister Ramesh Chennithala, who visited the victim's house on Tuesday and was mobbed local residents in protest against police apathy, admitted that there was a lapse on the part of police and assured them that strong action would be taken against the errant police officers.

Chief minister Oommen Chandy, who was in the mid of the campaign for the Assembly poll to be held on May 16, rushed to Perumbavoor and visited the girl's house.

Being the election time, leaders of all political parties are flocking to the area. There was no one at his house as her mother who lost her mental balance after the incident has been undergoing treatment at a local hospital.

Surprisingly, it seems that the blood-chilling rape-murder has not deeply stirred Kerala society. Barring isolated protests, there was no state-wide agitation against the dastardly crime.