IDUKKI : Kollam natives Alex K J and his partner Kavitha B thought they had covered their tracks. After killing a 70-year-old woman while robbing her at her residence in Adimali on April 13, the duo were trying to flee to Tamil Nadu by bus.
En route, however, the couple provided one of their mobile numbers at a shop were they had pledged a gold chain snatched from the victim’s body. This proved their undoing. The number provided the first solid clue to their identity, leading police to them.
According to officers, Subair found his mother Fathima Kasim lying in a pool of blood inside their house around 4pm when he returned from work. Her throat had been slit and gold ornaments she was wearing were found missing. Upon being alerted, police reached the spot, and in a primary investigation concluded that it was primarily a robbery attempt.
From the statements of neighbours and local residents, officers came to know about the Kollam duo, who had been roaming the area the previous few days. Soon after the crime, the couple had vacated the lodge in Adimali where they had been staying and hired a taxi to Kothamangalam. Before leaving Adimali, however, the accused tried to pledge the gold chain - weighing around two sovereigns -- at a shop in town. The investigators got the mobile number from the shop owner. The duo were forced to furnish the number to receive the one-time password from a private financial institution for the transfer of money.
“We contacted Kollam police and collected details of the person in whose name the mobile number was registered. We crosschecked the photo with local residents which confirmed the identity of the suspects,” Idukki SP T K Vishnu Pratheep said.
Alex of Kilikolloor and Kavitha of Decent Junction, Kollam, were picked up from a KSRTC bus headed for Coimbatore on April 14.
According to officers, the two were classmates who were separately married. However, they reconnected recently and started living together. The duo had arrived in Adimali on April 5 in search of a job and were staying at the lodge. They approached Fathima in search of rented accommodation. In the course of their interaction, they familiarised themselves with her circumstances.