The pond in which the body of a 12-year-old girl was found last month was drained on Thursday following instructions from the Crime Branch, which is investigating the case.
The body of Shreya Benny was found lying in the pond on the campus of the Accept Krupa Bhavan here on October 17. The girl was attending a personality development camp at the Bhavan and her body was found in the morning, reportedly a couple of hours after she was reported missing from the room where she was staying.
The post-mortem report and investigations by the local police found nothing mysterious in the death, with the local police reaching the assumption that the girl could have “walked in her sleep and accidentally fallen into the pond”.
However, the injuries on her face, confusion over whether she had the habit of sleep-walking and the reported contradictions in the statements given by inmates and authorities of the Bhavan triggered doubts in the minds of her parents, who submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister, following which the investigation was handed over to the Crime Branch.
Crime Branch IG R. Sreelekha had visited the Bhavan earlier this month, apart from interacting with the girl’s parents and questioning the inmates and authorities of the Bhavan. Crime Branch Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajagopal, who is now leading the field investigation, began his probe last week and it was on his instructions that the pond was drained early on Thursday.
Fire & Rescue personnel began the exercise around 4 a.m. on Thursday and the process was over by 8 a.m..
Though Crime Branch officials are tight-lipped about any new findings, police sources said the injuries on the girl’s face would be probed in detail with the draining exercise now showing that any fish that could cause such bruises were not found.
The only species found in the pond was the striped panchax (Poonjan), which rarely causes the kind of heavy bruises that were seen on the girl’s face. However, this is being verified and the possibility of the fish causing the bruises could not be ruled out, they added.
