A court in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday, May 10, ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to reinvestigate the missing case of Kerala woman Jesna Maria James. The CBI had submitted a closure report in January 2024 stating that the probe had hit a dead end. Jesna was a 20-year-old college student when she went missing in 2018, after she was last seen taking a bus from Erumeli town in Pathanamthitta district to visit her aunt’s house. Her case has remained unsolved, with the Kerala police department, the state Crime Branch, and finally the CBI taking up the investigation but to no avail.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Thiruvananthapuram was hearing a petition filed by Jesna’s father seeking a reinvestigation into the matter. According to reports, he had also submitted new proof in a sealed cover at the court. After perusing the new evidence, the court ordered a new probe.
Jesna, who was a second year B Com student, disappeared on March 22, 2018. Her father filed a complaint at Vechoochira police station, and the case was initially investigated by local police, followed by the district police chief and a special team. The case was then handed over to the Crime Branch in October 2018, where it was investigated by the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) of the Pathanamthitta Crime Branch.
The case was later handed over to the CBI in February 2021 by the Kerala High Court. The CBI examined over 100 witnesses and investigated locations from Jesna's hometown to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra. The CBI submitted the final closure report on January 4, 2024, after hitting a dead end.