THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Police have confirmed that the murder of Chambakkada native Visakh in front of his house near Kaithamukku on Sunday was pre-planned and stemmed from a fallout based on a boundary dispute between the families of the victim and the prime accused.
Shankhumukham assistant commissioner Alexander Thankachan said all four people involved in the attack on Visakh have been arrested and all of them have criminal antecedents.
The prime accused Pradeep aka Pathu Pradeep, the officer said, was involved in at least seven cases and had been detained under KAAPA. His criminal activities were all prior to 2013, the officer said.
The second accused Vineeth was involved in a murder case, while third accused Nazeer Khan has five criminal cases. Shivaprasad, the fourth accused, has about a dozen criminal cases. Nazeer and Shivaprasad have been included in the rowdy list of Pettah and Vizhinjam police, respectively.
Visakh’s family had earlier accused the police of overlooking their complaint that there was threat to Visakh’s life from Pradeep. Visakh had earlier attacked Pradeep for which he was arrested for an attempt to murder and remanded in judicial custody. The police however denied the allegation and said the victim’s mother had written to the police that there was no threat to her son’s life.
The immediate provocation for the cold-blooded murder, which was captured by CCTV cameras, was Visakh damaging Pradeep’s brother’s vehicle recently. The police said machetes and a vehicle were arranged on the eve of the murder and that proved it was a pre-planned murder. It was from the CCTV visuals that the cops identified all the culprits. The visuals revealed the crime committed by the group in a car that tailed Visakh, who ran a laundry, while he was heading home.
The gang got out of the car and chased Visakh down before repeatedly hacking him down with machetes. Though he was taken to a hospital, doctors declared him dead.