By Express News Service KOCHI: The Crime Branch will now probe the murder of the woman whose body was found in the Periyar river in Aluva in February last year. The case was transferred to the Crime Branch after the efforts of the 15-member special squad to trace the woman’s identity failed to bear fruit even after one year. The move to hand over the case to the agency, however, has raised eyebrows as the Crime Branch has failed to make any breakthrough in several sensational cases that were reported in the district in the past few years. The mysterious case On February 13 last year, the Ernakulam rural police fished out the decomposed body of an unidentified woman, said to be in her 30s, from the river. It was wrapped in several blankets and tied to a heavy stone. The body was clad in a blue top and a green lower garment. Seminarians of Vincentian Vidhyabhavan near UC College spotted the body first. Though the Special Investigation Team (SIT) unearthed the involvement of a couple after identifying the shop near Kalamassery from where they purchased a blanket to wrap the body, they failed to collect any crucial evidence. “The police found that a woman and a man arrived at the shop in a car at night to purchase a blanket. Since the shop did not have a CCTV camera, the police could not identify their car. The probe launched based on the information of missing women in the state also failed to make any headway,” said a source.Owing to the lack of progress, the Ernakulam Rural SP recommended a probe by Crime Branch. The police suspect the killers might have choked the woman to death or rendered her unconscious, carried the body to the river and threw it into the water. The decomposed state of the body indicated that the woman might have been murdered two or three days before. Autopsy reports said the woman was smothered to death. Cases pending before Crime Branch 1. Death of Mishel Shaji, 18, a CA student who left her hostel at Kacheripady to attend the mass at St Antony’s Church at Kaloor on March 5, 2017. She was found dead in the lake near Thoppumpady the next day. 2. Firing at salon owned by actor Leena Maria Paul here on December 15, 2018. Chargesheet arraigning underworld don Ravi Pujari is to be submitted before court. 3. Illegal construction of apartment complex at Maradu. Investigation team awaiting nod for initiating probe against ex-head of then Maradu grama panchayat K A Devassy.

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