Plea before Kerala High Court seeks CBI probe into death of Assistant Public Prosecutor

The mother of S Aneesha, an Assistant Public Prosecutor who was found dead on January 21 this year, has moved the Kerala High Court seeking a probe into her daughter's death by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) [Smt. Prasanna v. State of Kerala & Ors.].Aneesha was an Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) at the Paravoor Munsiff Magistrate Court in Kollam district. According to the plea moved by her mother Prasanna, Aneesha had been facing constant mental harassment from the Deputy Director of Prosecution (DPP) Abdul Jaleel, and another APP Shyam Krishnan..Aneesha's mother highlighted several instances when the alleged harassment was particularly severe. On one occasion, Aneesha was unable to appear in a matter due to health issues following which Jaleel and Krishnan allegedly sent insulting messages about her in an official WhatsApp group used by prosecutors.According to the petition, several APPs would not attend office regularly but would mark their attendance nonetheless. When a lawyer filed an RTI application seeking details of APPs who failed to attend office, Jaleel and Krishnan assumed that Aneesha had filed it."Thereafter DPP, Sri Abdul Jaleel and APP Shyam Krishnan started harassing and threatening the deceased by sending insulting and indecent messages against the deceased in the official Whatsapp group of the prosecutors so as to coerce her to make the lawyer to withdraw from his move to unearth the corruption. The deceased could not respond to the insults and messages in Whatsapp as the same were made by her superior. This aggravated the mental pressure on the deceased," the petition stated. Pertinently, the plea alleged that this was done in pursuance of a conspiracy hatched between Jaleel, Krishnan and other APPs to threaten Aneesha to compel her to withdraw the RTI application.To this end, a meeting was convened at the DPP's office on January 19, two days before Aneesha allegedly died by suicide. At this meeting, Jaleel allegedly verbally insulted and threatened her in front of her colleagues and juniors. All this badly affected her mental health, the plea said..Even though a crime was registered by the Police once Aneesha was found dead, the police have turned a blind eye to the larger conspiracy, the petition stated. It is claimed that Aneesha's suicide note, the voice messages, and WhatsApp messages from Aneesha to others about the harassment, have not been examined properly. Even the departmental inquiry ordered by the Director of Prosecution and the suspension of Jaleel and Shyam are nothing more than an eyewash, the plea contended.Therefore, in order to get a fair and unbiased investigation into her daughter's death, the petitioner has now moved the High Court and urged it to hand over the investigation to the CBI..Prasanna was represented by advocates P Martin Jose, A Jani, Githesh R, Thomas P Kuruvilla, Ajay Ben Jose, Manjunath Menon and Harikrishnan S.