The family of Hawwa Yumnu Rasheed, 21, who was found with critical injuries on the roof of Henveiru Mitaaz in Male' on April 18, has said the police did not formally request to get a statement for the investigation.
In a letter sent to the police on Saturday, the family accused the police of lying about them not cooperating with the investigation. The letter said the family had not taken any action to interfere with the investigation.
“The Maldives Police Service has not yet formally notified the family to take a statement from Hawwa Yumnu Rasheed. If the police service formally requests to take a statement from Hawwa Yumnu Rasheed, the family will respond to it," the letter stated.
It added that the family had lost confidence that the police would conduct a fair investigation because of their actions in the initial stages of the investigation. But the family said they were ready to cooperate fully with the investigation.
The letter highlighted that police accused the family of not cooperating despite police officers travelling to Malaysia after they spent more than an hour in a meeting with Chief Inspector of Police Dr. Hassan Umeir.
The family also said police had not requested to find any information about Yumnu's medical condition and urged the police not to spread false information.
Yumnu was evacuated to Malaysia on April 26. She was found with multiple life-threatening injuries on the roof of a warehouse next to Henveiru Fentenoy house, nearly three hours after her fall on April 18.
Raudh Ahmed Zilal, 22, who left the scene and did not report to authorities after Yumnu's fall, was not arrested despite testing positive for cannabis. He was detained six days later following public outrage.
According to police, Yumnu had been at a "drug-fueled party" with eight others at another house before the incident. The party was at Transport Minister Mohamed Ameen's house. Police later said they could not get video footage from the house because the cameras were broken.
None of the others who attended the "drug-fueled party" had also been arrested.
There have been accusations of police lying to Yumnu's family, tampering with video footage and victim-blaming to cover up the case because it involved relatives of politically influential and wealthy figures.
