The probe into the 11-year-old missing case of Edappally native Smitha George has taken another turn with reports emerging that Devayani, the prime witness in the case, had committed suicide last month.
Sources said Devayani died of poisoning in Ahmedabad where a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team had taken her for a brain-fingerprinting test in June. She died on July 9 after undergoing treatment at the intensive care unit (ICU) of hospital for about two weeks. An autopsy report indicated poisoning as the cause of death. There have also been reports about the woman consuming some poisonous substance in the train from Kerala to Ahmedabad.
Earlier in June, the CBI sleuths had taken Devayani and Antony, Smitha’s husband and suspect in the case, to the Raksha Shakti University (RSU) in Ahmedabad for brain-fingerprinting test. The team had left for Ahmedabad on June 14 and Devayani was admitted to the hospital on their arrival there on June 16.
Devayani, who stayed with the couple in Dubai, had earlier told the Crime Branch that she had been witness to a bloody altercation between Smitha and her husband on the day she went missing in 2005. Based on a complaint from the missing woman’s parents, the Crime Branch, which had earlier conducted a probe, arrested Antony. Antony married Smitha in May 2005, following which the couple left for Dubai. In September that year, Antony allegedly rang up her parents and told them that their daughter was missing and faxed them a letter he claimed was written by Smitha. The letter said that the woman had eloped with another person. The Dubai police had also launched an inquiry into the case.
Recently, the CBI officials contacted Shamsudeen Karunagappilly, counsel of Smitha’s family, and informed him about Devayani’s death.
