In a potentially major development in the sensational missing case of Kerala woman Jesna Maria James, an inmate at the Poojappura central jail in Thiruvananthapuram has provided new information to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The inmate reportedly told the CBI that a former inmate whom he once shared a prison cell with, had claimed that he knew what happened to Jesna, who has been missing for nearly five years now. The inmate, who is an accused in a POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act case, informed the CBI that his former cellmate, a native of Pathanamthitta, had claimed that he knew Jesna and about what had happened to her.
Jesna, who was a college student from the Erumeli town in Pathanamthitta district, had gone missing on March 22, 2018, after leaving her home to visit her aunt’s house. Since then, Jesna’s case has turned into one of the most mysterious cases in the state, with the Kerala police department, the state Crime Branch and finally the CBI taking up the investigation. However, there has been no trace of Jesna, who was 20 years old when she went missing.
Now, five years after Jesna went missing, an inmate of Poojappura central prison has come forward with the claim that his former cellmate knew about Jesna’s whereabouts. As per reports, the CBI examined the inmate’s claims and found that the details he gave were mostly correct, and that his former cellmate from Pathanamthitta has been absconding ever since he was released on bail.
In 2021, the Kerala High Court handed over the Jesna Maria James missing case to the CBI, after Jesna’s brother approached the court citing failure on part of the Kerala police and the Crime Branch in providing any breakthrough.
When Jesna went missing in 2018, she was a second-year degree student at the St Dominic's College in Kanjirappally of Kottayam. On the fateful day of March 22 that year, she left her house in Vechoochira, near Erumeli, to go to her aunt's place in Mundakayam, Kottayam. Police investigation found that she had boarded a bus to Mundakayam, although it was never confirmed up to where she reached, or when she disappeared. There are also reports of Jesna messaging her friends and being communicable up to a certain point in her journey. Afterward, however, there was no communication from her.