'Cops neglected missing cases'

Five of 19 victims of serial killer were from Kasargod district

While family members claim that they had filed missing cases, the police argue otherwise. Except for the ‘Vijayalakshmi missing case’, which was registered at Kumbla police station on May 24, 2009. Meanwhile, none of the other jurisdictional police stations have any documents with regard to the rest of the victims.

Kumbla circle inspector who is in-charge of this case, K Damodaran, told Deccan Herald that they are not probing into the case as no missing complaints were filed by the families.

He said, the case should be handled by Karnataka police, and Kerala police will provide assistance if required.

On the other hand, the families of Arathi Naika (22), from Padre village, as well as Savithri Moolya (27), from Paivalige said that they had filed a missing complaint with the jurisdictional stations within a few days after the women went missing. Arathi was found missing in the first week of January, 2006 and Savithri had left home in 2004.

Arathi’s father Rama Naika, who had filed a complaint at Badiadka station said that some policemen had visited his house and taken away the original, and copies of the complaint, saying that it was required for investigation.

Savithri Moolya’s father Malinga Moolya said that he had not only filed a complaint with the Manjeshwara police, but had also taken up the issue with the Superintendent of Police when Savithri went missing. Moolya still believes that she is alive, as he said that the police had showed him Savithri’s photo, which he had given to one of the newspapers.

‘Scared of men in khaki’

Another victim Pushpa, has five sisters and there is no male member in the family and hence, the family decided to keep themselves away from police. “We are scared of men in khaki,” says Yashoda, the youngest sister of Pushpa.

And yet when the Mohan Kumar case was cracked, they did go to Adhur police station where the policemen sent them away asking, why they did not come when Pushpa went missing. The family has spent a sum of Rs 7,000 on an astrologer who said that Pushpa was fine and will be back in three months.

Though Kamala, one of the five victims from Kerala, was a resident of Bayar village in Uppala, a missing case was registered at Ullal police station here, way back in September 25, 2006 itself. However, Ullal police had closed the file without taking much pain after six months.

Ullal Sub-Inspector T D Nagaraj said that Kamala was staying with her sister Geetha at Ashraya Colony in Kumpala in Ullal. Kamala went to Thokkottu on August 14, 2006 to find job in a printing press, but never returned. However, Kamala’s brother Narayana Naik, who filed a complaint, later requested the police to withdraw it on March 7, 2007, Nagaraj said.

Narayana Naik had informed the police that they had found Kamala at Sadashivanagar in Bangalore and had requested them not to proceed with the missing complaint. Following this, the police closed the file blindly.