Jesna case: CBI to visit Mundakkayam after former lodge employee claims to have seen missing girl
CBI team probing Jesna missing case will visit Mundakkayam to investigate new lead after a former employee claims to have seen Jesna-like girl with her boyfriend at lodge days before her 2018 disappearance.
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FollowKochi: The CBI team probing the Jesna missing case is set to visit Mundakkayam today to investigate a new lead. A former lodge employee has come forward claiming to have seen a girl resembling Jesna at the lodge days before her disappearance in 2018. The CBI officials from Thiruvananthapuram will look into whether the sighting is indeed connected to Jesna case.
After the woman made this claim, Asianet News Kottayam reporter Bidin M. Das reached that lodge, which is steeped in mystery. The lodge is located near the Mundakkayam bus stand, and the rooms are on the upper floors, accessible by a staircase. The woman who made the revelation had said that she saw the girl resembling Jesna with her boyfriend on the staircase leading to the rooms. The room no. 102 taken by the duo is on the second floor.
The lodge owner, Biju Xavier, while denying the latest revelation, told Asianet News that the Crime Branch team had previously visited the lodge as part of their investigation.
The case pertaining to Jesna's disappearance has been surrounded by mystery from the beginning. Suspicions initially fell on her father, a friend, and several other notable individuals. The investigation explored various possibilities, including murder, suicide, elopement in love, and even connections to international terrorist organizations.
The incident related to the case took place in March 2018 when Jesna Mariya Thomas, a second-year B.Com student of St Dominic College went missing from her home in Pathanamthitta. She went to her relative's home in Mundakkayam and never came back. The CCTV footage showed that she had gone to Erumeli. There were attempts to contact her over phone, but there was no response on the other end.
Following this, a case was registered at the police station and an investigation was conducted by checking the phone in the house but no evidence was found. About two lakh phone numbers were collected for the investigation and 4000 were scrutinized.
Meanwhile, there were also reports that Jesna was seen several times in different locations. Thus, the investigation team went directly to Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kodagu. The initial phase of the investigation centered around Jesna's residence, where authorities conducted intensive scrutiny for several days as her close family members, including her father James, underwent multiple rounds of questioning.
