Express News Service By

NEW DELHI/KOCHI: A fact-finding team of the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Tuesday accused that the Jisha murder case investigation was not being conducted in a rigorous manner due to “electoral” considerations. The four-member NCW committee also blamed the forensic department for “failing miserably” in providing services to the investigating team to identify the real culprit. Reading out parts of the report, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said: “The committee is of the view that since the state of Kerala is going for elections, the administration and police are functioning under some undue pressure and there is likelihood of the investigation not being conducted as rigorously as possible due to electoral considerations.”

The report also stated that though the authorities had assured of prompt and effective investigation, till date, no information has been provided to the commission.

The committee also said the post mortem and forensic test of other evidence had also not been done properly. The State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA) too pointed out the flaws in the ongoing probe. SPCA chairman K Narayana Kurup has alleged that the investigators failed to adopt a ‘professional’ style. “They have not given adequate prominence for the case,” he said. “Failure on the part of the police in protecting the crime scene may have led to the destruction of important pieces of evidence. This is a serious flaw happened from their side,” he pointed out. He also criticised the hasty cremation of the body. “The investigators are claiming that they have collected all forensic evidence and there is no possibility for conducting a re-postmortem. However, this argument is baseless as they lost an opportunity to collect scientific evidence,” Kurup added.

The Rain Dance

Finally, the rain. Skies opened up on Tuesday bringing much-desired relief for people, farmers from the blazing summer over last two months.

Area Rain (mm)

Alappuzha 6

Kannur 1

Kochi 20

Kottayam 28

Kozhikode 3

Palakkad 4

T’Puram (dist) 32

T’Puram city 67

7mm Maximum rainfall on Tuesday at Konni and T’Puram city

R50lakh: Relief fund allotted for each district

Fishermen have been warned of squally winds at 50-60 kmph