The Kerala High Court today dismissed a habeas corpus plea seeking a direction to authorities to produce a missing 20-year-old woman.
A habeas corpus plea is a petition which is filed to ensure a person under arrest is brought before a court which will determine whether the detention is legal.
In a separate petition seeking CBI probe, Jais John James submitted that his sister Jesna Maria James, a second-year BCom student at St Dominics College, Kanjirappally, has been missing since March 22 and a Special Investigation Team was constituted by the state police to investigate the case.
Dismissing the plea filed by the woman's brother, a division bench of justices C K Abdul Rahim and Narayana Pisharadi said the petitioner could not produce any material to show that his sister Jesna Maria James was in illegal custody.
The court observed that the ongoing police investigation in the case was progressing in a satisfactory manner.
The court also observed that another petition moved by the brother seeking a direction to the state police to hand over the probe to the CBI was pending consideration.
He has alleged that the SIT could not make any headway to trace his sister.
Considering the matter yesterday, the court had remarked whether the person's disappearance could be equated with keeping a person in illegal detention.
In an affidavit filed yesterday, the police had submitted that the special investigation team has probed all information and allegations on the woman's disappearance.
The police had admitted that the SIT could not get any clear evidence in the matter despite carrying out a thorough investigation in the case, questioning 250 persons and recording the statements of 130 people.
The police said it had also analysed nearly 1,00,000 telephone calls.
The petitioner submitted that representations were filed before the state government, praying that the probe be handed over to the CBI. However there was no positive response, he alleged.
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