Nearly two months after the Kerala police arrested two people for allegedly sexually assaulting and murdering a Latvian woman in Thiruvananthapuram, the woman's family has now sought for a CBI probe.
According to reports, the woman's partner has moved the Kerala High Court seeking an investigation by the central agency, arguing that the state police has failed to make more arrests in the case.
The court on Friday issued a notice to CBI on the victim's kin's petition, and also sought the view of the state government on the same.
In his petition, he argued that although the police had said that four people were involved in the crime, they had only arrested two people so far.
The woman, who reached Kerala in February this year along with her younger sister, went missing on March 14. At the end of a month-long search, her decomposed body was recovered from Thiruvananthapuram in the last week of April.
Days after her body was found, the police arrested two men in connection with the crime. The Special Investigating Team (SIT) arrested Udayan (24) and Umesh (28), for allegedly murdering and sexually assaulting the woman. Umesh, who is a local tourist guide, is the first accused in the case . Both the accused have been booked for murder, rape and under section 20 B of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act.)
The accused gave drugs to the Latvian woman. While the post-mortem report had initially confirmed that she was strangulated to death, the police later confirmed that she had been subjected to sexual assault.
The Latvian woman went missing on March 14 from the Dharma Ayurvedic Healing Centre in Pothencode, where she was undergoing treatment for traumatic depression. She walked out of the centre and hired an autorickshaw on March 14. The driver, who was later traced by the police, said that he had dropped her off near Kovalam beach. She remained untraceable for over a month, after which, her decomposed body was found. Her murder had caused anger in Kerala, with the lack of safety of foreign tourists in the state, attracting criticism.