KOCHI: The Kochi city police on Friday cracked the case related to the death of a 65-year-old Kollam native whose body was found in Kakkanad on October 25 and arrested four persons including a woman.
The police found that deceased Divakaran Nair was trapped using the woman, and abducted and murdered inside an Innova car by four men.The arrested persons are Kottayam natives Anil Kumar, Rajesh S and Sanjay, and Shanifa of Kollam. Police are also tracing a Kottayam native, Anoop.
According to the police, the Divakaran’s body was spotted by pedestrians near a plot owned by KSEB on the Karimugal-Infopark road on Sunday morning.
The body could be identified after finding a paper containing the telephone number of an astrologer who told the police that the deceased had contacted him to check whether it was a good time for contesting in the elections.
The inquest report also revealed that the deceased was brutally beaten up and there were bruises in different parts of the body.
Later, four teams were constituted and a probe revealed that Divakaran was murdered following a property dispute with his brother. The dispute was over 1.17 acres of land.
“Divakaran, a resident of Elamadu, and his brother Madhu had a dispute over the ownership of the land. In a civil case, the land was awarded to Madhu around 14 years back. However, Divakaran still objected to disposing of the property. A few months back, Madhu and his relatives met Divakaran for disposing of the land as Madhu was facing financial issues. However, Divakaran still objected and a clash broke out between the two families,” said K B Jijimon, ACP, Thrikkakara
The son of first accused Anil Kumar is married to Madhu’s daughter. Anil Kumar was also among the group which met Divakaran when the clash occurred. It was Anil who hired the gang for murdering Divakaran. “On October 24, Divakaran came to Kochi for meeting Shanifa who is the lover of second accused Rajesh. He was asked to reach Aluva to meet Shanifa. On the way to Aluva, Divakaran was abducted by a four-member group -- Anil, Rajesh, Sanjay and Anoop.
He was beaten up and strangled to death inside the car. We suspect the incident happened near the Thrikakkara police station area in the evening. Later, they disposed of his bags, footwear and dress in different parts of Kakkanad before dumping the body on the roadside at night. They then went to Ponkunnam via Muvattupuzha,” the police officer said.
According to the police, the gang was paid Rs, 50,000 and more money was promised. A few more persons linked with the case have to be arrested. The police have recovered the vehicle in which Divakaran was murdered. The police also checked CCTV cameras and found that the gang had followed the autorickshaw in which Divakaran was travelling to Aluva.