KOCHI: Unraveling the mystery behind the missing of a 48-year-old woman at Udayamperoor in Ernakulam district, three months ago, the Kochi City Police on Tuesday arrested her husband and his lover for allegedly strangling her to death and burying the body at Thirunelveli in Tamilnadu.
Premkumar, a native of Changanassery and Sunitha Baby, his childhood friend, were nabbed for murdering Vidya, a native of Cherthala at a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram on September 21. The couple had been residing at a rented house in Udayamperoor since March this year.
An inquiry into the missing of Vidya led to the arrest of Premkumar (40) after he filed a plea seeking anticipatory bail before the court. "Premkumar and Vidya booked a room at a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram on September 20. Sunitha (39) was also staying there. Premkumar gave liquor to Vidya and strangled her to death when she was in an inebriated state on September 21 morning. Later he buried the body beside a highway at Thirunalveli with the help of Sunitha, a nursing superintendent with a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. The duo abandoned the mobile phone of the deceased on a long-distance train to mislead the police. After this, he lodged a complaint before the Udayamperoor police citing that his wife had been missing," said an officer.
The duo will be produced before Tripunithura Judicial First Class Magistrate Court today and the police will approach the court seeking their custody for further investigation on Wednesday. The police have initiated steps to retrieve the body to conduct a postmortem.
"Preliminary investigation suggested that the accused annihilated the woman to live together. The two accused know each other since childhood. However, the real reason behind the murder is yet to be ascertained," said the officer adding that the accused will be subjected to a detailed interrogation.