Prime witness in Smitha missing case died in CBI custody

KOCHI: In what could be a major setback for Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing 11-year-old missing case of Kochi woman Smitha George in Dubai, prime witness Devayani aka Annie died of poisoning in Ahmadabad. The central agency had taken Devayani to Ahmadabad for lie detection test in June. Sources said that Devayani died of poisoning on July 9 after undergoing treatment for about two weeks in intensive care unit (ICU) at a hospital in Ahmadabad.CBI team had left for Ahmadabad with Devayani, a suspect and sole eyewitness in the case, on June 14. On arrival in Ahmadabad on June 16, Devayani was admitted at a hospital with complaints of cardiac ailments. “She underwent treatment for about two weeks in ICU where her condition deteriorated and died on July 9. However, autopsy findings indicated poisoning as the cause of death”, said a source.Smitha George, daughter of George, a resident of Changampuzha Road at Edappally had gone missing from Dubai on September 3, 2005. She had gone to Dubai to stay with her husband Antony aka Sabu who was then employed there. Devayani had confessed to the CBI that Smitha was assaulted by her husband Antony with knife at her camp house in Dubai on the day she went missing. Antony had a live-in relationship with Devayani in Dubai. The state Crime Branch which earlier investigated the case had arrested Antony and Devayani. The special crime investigation department (Dubai CID) is also probing the case in Dubai. A dead body, suspected to be of Smitha, is still preserved at a government hospital in Dubai.