KOZHIKODE: When she fell in love with a Malayalee man from a different religion and left home at the age of 19, Maharashtra native Jiyaram Jalot's mind was filled with the hopes of a happy new life. However, after 11 years, her destiny was to be killed in a cell at the Kuthiravattom mental health centre after she wandered off to Kozhikode with his infant in search of his estranged husband.

Jiyaram, a native of Thane in Maharashtra, fell in love with Siraj from Kuniyilpeedika in Pinarayi in Thalassery and eloped. The sudden departure of Jiyaram came as a shock to the family.

Siraj came to Pinarayi with his wife four years after his marriage. Their daughter was also with them. When the family found out that their son's wife was a non-Muslim, they became very upset. Jiyaram was soon taken to Ponnani and converted. After that, Siraj and his family returned to Maharashtra. However, it is said that the girl returned to Hinduism shortly after arriving there. When Siraj came home four years ago, his wife and daughter were not with him. After returning, there was no information about them.

On January 6, Jiyaram came to Pinarayi with her one-and-a-half-year-old child. Jiyaram said she had not known anything about Siraj for some time and that the baby is their son. The family members said that Siraj had not returned home but the girl did not back down. She went to the Pinarayi police station and asked to find her husband. Police contacted the family but were told that Siraj was not there.

Eventually, the police gave her money for the ticket to Maharashtra and urged her to return. But the young woman did not go back. She started wandering in and around Thalassery in a state of disarray. The locals who saw the baby being brutally beaten one day informed the police. The boy was then transferred to Shishu Mandiram and the woman to Mahila Mandiram. The next day the young woman escaped from the Mahila Mandiram. Jiyaram was later taken to Kuthiravttom by the police after she created a fuss at Thalassery Co-operative Hospital. She was beaten to death by another mentally ill woman last Wednesday night inside the cell.