The investigation into the suspicious death of Nayana Surya, a young filmmaker from Kerala, was revived on January 2, nearly four years after her death. Nayana was found dead in the bathroom of a rented house in Thiruvananthapuram in February, 2019. While a case of unnatural death had been registered at the time, the police had eventually closed the case after concluding that she had died by suicide. The case has now been reopened, after Nayana’s friends and family expressed dissatisfaction over the investigation, and pointed to worrying details in the post-mortem.
Nayana’s post-mortem report, which was accessed by her friends recently, revealed that she died due to ‘constriction force on neck’. The report also found that she had a bruise on her abdomen, and hemorrhage around the pancreas and lower part of kidney. Based on these details in the post-mortem report, Nayana’s friends raised suspicion that she could have been murdered.
The police had previously closed Nayana’s death case, concluding that it was a suicide. Now, Thiruvananthapuram Assistant Commissioner (District Crime Records Bureau) Dinil will submit a report on the previous enquiry, following which police will decide on re-investigation.
Nayana had assisted late filmmaker Lenin Rajendran for nine years, and directed one of the segments in the 2017 anthology film Crossroad, which comprised 10 stories about 10 different women. Nayana’s segment was titled Pakshikalude Maanam. Nayana was also an activist who led many protests against black sand mining in Chavara. She died on her birthday on February 23, 2019.
Only 40 days before her death, her mentor filmmaker Lenin Rajendran had also passed away in January 2019. Nayana was known to have been upset over his death for many days. On her birthday, when her parents and friends could not reach her on the phone for hours, they became worried. One of her friends finally went to Nayana’s apartment to check on her at about 11 pm, and found her dead. At the time of her death, it was speculated that she may have died by suicide as she was depressed after Lenin Rajendran’s death.
Commenting on the case, retired Kerala police officer George Joseph has said that it is nearly impossible to strangulate oneself. In a video uploaded to a YouTube channel, George Joseph said, “The cause of death is constriction force on the neck. So the case must be considered a murder. The white substance present in her body as per the post-mortem report also needs to be identified. Bruises on internal organs were also found. All of these findings indicate she was murdered.”