Hurt and Homicide Wing of the Crime Branch, Ernakulam, arrested a man on Wednesday in connection with a missing case reported at Changanassery in August 1995. According to the Crime Branch investigation, the arrested had murdered a 13-year-old boy while trying to snatch a 10-gram gold chain from him.
Police arrested Harikumar alias Unni, 41, Elamuriyil House, Manjadikara, Vazhapilly, Changanassery for murdering Mahadevan, son of the late Vishwanadan Achari, a shop owner. According to K G Simon, SP, Crime Branch, Mahadevan went missing on September 9, 1995. He was last seen in front of Vishwanadan’s shop at Madhumula.
Police registered a missing case as Mahadevan had once run away from home.
Some people had claimed that they had seen Mahadevan at different places. Mahadevan’s father received threat letters twice demanding him money.
After failing to trace Mahadevan, the Local police and the Crime Branch had filed closure report before the court. However, following a High Court direction, the investigation charge was handed over to the SP, Crime Branch, in 2001.
“During the investigation, we interrogated those who claimed that they had seen Mahadevan. There were differences in their statements, proving that they had not seen Mahadevan. Later, during the investigation, it was found that Mahadevan was seen going to a cycle shop run by Harikumar. Following this, we interrogated Harikumar and found that he had murdered Mahadevan while trying to snatch a gold chain,” Simon said.
The body was dumped at a pond filled with weeds in an isolated location. Harikumar’s friend Sali alias Salimon and brother-in-law Kannan alias Pramod helped him dump the body. Kannan died few years ago and Sali is yet to be arrested. Crime Branch officials said there was another suspect in the case whose name cannot be revealed now. The fourth suspect had written letters to Mahadevan’s father demanding money.