The Hindu : Front Page : Murder of student: police team leaves for Andamans

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 27, 2005

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Murder of student: police team leaves for Andamans

Staff Reporter

Police suspect some youths from the islands behind the murder

WHEN GRIEF SPILLED OVER: The parents of the murdered engineering college student Shyamal Mandal on their way to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital mortuary to identify the body on Wednesday. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A police team led the Fort Circle Inspector T.K. Rajmohan left for the Andamans on Wednesday morning in connection with the investigation into the murder of Shyamal Mandal, a 23-year-old engineering college student, whose body was found tied in a sack near the National Highway Bypass at Thiruvallam in the city on Sunday.

The police suspect some youth hailing from the Andamans having animosity towards the victim or his family to be behind the murder.

Earlier in the day, the victim's body, kept at the Medical College Hospital mortuary, was identified by his parents, Basudev Mandal and Sumitra Mandal, both of them teachers at a school in the Andamans. The body was identified from the dental capping on one of his teeth and also from a scar on his right leg. The body was later cremated at the Thycaud crematorium.

Struggling to fight back his emotions, Mr. Mandal told mediapersons that he wanted a `free and fair' investigation into the death of his son. According to him, the version of Digambar, a friend of Shyamal, about the disappearance of their son has been `contradictory.'

The police questioned some of Shymal's friends, including Digambar, at the Fort police station this evening. They are also investigating a reported association which Shymal had with a girl of the same college hailing from the Andamans.

According to the police, a purse found near the body of the victim has no connection with the case. The purse was reportedly stolen from a woman in the city days before the body of the student was found.

Earlier in the day, Pannian Raveendran and V.S. Sivakumar, the CPI and Congress candidates for the Lok Sabha byelection here, met Mr. Mandal and his wife and assured them all necessary assistance in bringing the guilty to book.

Meanwhile, Students Federation of India activists took out a march to the Secretariat demanding an impartial and comprehensive probe into the death. The march was followed by a dharna.

Inaugurating the dharna, SFI district secretary R.S. Kiran Dev demanded immediate arrest of the persons responsible for the murder.

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