The Crime Branch team probing the death of 18-year-old Mishel Shaji Varghese has booked Cronin Alexander Baby, accused of abetting her suicide, under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
Officials said here on Saturday that a case was registered on finding that Cronin had maintained a relationship with the girl, who turned 18 in January this year. The charge was included while filing a report seeking his custody before the Judicial First Class Magistate Court, Maradu, on Saturday.
Cronin had told the sleuths that he had a relationship with Mishel for the past two years. During investigation, they also recovered electronic evidence of Cronin harassing the girl, in addition to statements in this direction by Mishel’s friends.
With the investigation so far failing to yield any major breakthrough, the Crime Branch team are now looking for a possible witness to the girl jumping off the second Goshree bridge.
Investigators are of the view that the girl jumped off the bridge around 7.45 p.m. on March 5, when there was a heavy traffic along the route.
Earlier, Amal Wilfred, a native of Vypeen, had given a statement to the police that he saw a girl near the second Goshree bridge around 7 p.m. during the day. Later, the police collected CCTV visuals of a girl resembling Mishel heading to the spot.
