Thiruvananthapuram: Even after a week of a Dalit law student’s brutal rape and murder in Perumbavoor, 220 km from the state capital of Thiruvanthapuram, no arrests have been made.
The shocking incident which came to light five days ago, revealed that a law student’s mutilated body was found on Thursday by her mother. Over 30 marks of stabbing were found on her body and her intestines were pulled out.
According to victim’s friends, no politician or activist lobbied for the case to be treated as a priority. The police too suppressed facts and continued to suggest that the student was not gang-raped.
Inspector General of Police, Ernakulam told NDTV, that, “Rape still has to be confirmed. We are awaiting the post-mortem report which will be handed over to us today.” The police have said she was strangled and smothered, and that she was hit very hard on the head before she died.
The crime has been referred as ‘Kerala’s Nirbhaya’ and compared with gang-rape in 2012 of a young Delhi student on a moving bus, who died of her injuries after she was found on the road with her intestines visible.
Victim’s mother complained that the people around them wanted to harm her and her daughter frequently, and nobody paid attention to her complaints. “They tried to attack me with their bike. They hated us,” she said talking about a neighbour.
“She was mentally unstable. She made noise often and none of us wanted to intervene in their matter,” said Bindu Susan, president of the local residents’ association about the mother. Even the cries for help from the victim and her mother on the April 28th would have fallen on deaf ears for the same reason.
The victim lived with her mother in a house whose door could be broken with one kick, a single room with no window panes, on a land that was not their own.
Two people have been taken into custody for questioning.
