Jiju – partner of Anannyah Kumari Alex, Kerala's first transwoman RJ who allegedly died by suicide on 20 July – was found dead in his apartment in Kochi on Friday, 23 July, Kochi police told The Quint.
The partner called himself an ayurveda expert and a style guru. He was living with Anannyah, when she allegedly died by suicide.
The death of the partner within two days has made Anannyah's case, which is under investigation by Kerala government, more murky.
After Anannyah's death, Jiju was staying in a rented house with his friend in Vyttila in Kochi. He was found hanging from the ceiling when his friend returned home in the afternoon, the police said.
The Maradu police inspector told The Quint, "The suicide should have happened between 10 am to 2.30 pm because that is when his friend had stepped out. Preliminary inquiries with his friends show that Jiju was quite upset over the death of his partner". The police confirmed that no suicide note was found and the autopsy will be conducted on Saturday, 24 July.
Probe Into Anannyah's Death Ordered by Health Minister
As per reports, a preliminary postmortem autopsy done on Anannyah's body has confirmed the cause of her death as asphyxiation.
Anannyah Kumari Alex had accused the doctors of a Kochi-based private hospital of performing a sex reassignment surgery poorly. She claimed that the surgery which was done in June 2020 was not a success and that the hospital was allegedly refusing to release her treatment records.
Before her death, she claimed to be a victim of gross medical negligence and said she was experiencing breathing difficulties and pains.
Kerala's Health Minister Veena George said on 22 July that an expert committee will be formed to study issues related to the sex reassignment surgery.
The police had registered this as a case of unnatural death, on Friday. The autopsy was conducted on 22 July at Kalamassery Medical College. Anannyah's body was kept for a while at a home of a fellow community member at Aluva and later taken to her native place at Peruman in Kollam.
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