KOCHI: The mystery behind the death of a 40-year-old man whose body was found near a canal in Tripunithura on August 6 seems to have deepened further. The Hill Palace police probing the case have found that the deceased, Manoj of Thekkumbhagam, had an altercation with a few people at a wayside eatery and that too, just minutes before his death.
“Manoj sat on the motorcycle of another person without his permission. This made the owner and his friends angry and he questioned it. Since Manoj was under the influence of alcohol, he entered into a verbal spat with them. A few others joined them against Manoj,” said a police officer. The CCTV visuals showed Manoj running nude on the road minutes after the incident. “We are not sure whether he was running after the incident in front of the wayside eatery. We questioned the people who were there at the time and couldn’t find anything suspicious. The post-mortem report is yet to be available,” said the officer.
Meanwhile, the information received by the police from the doctors suggested the death might have been caused due to a cardiac arrest. “There are some bruises on the body of the deceased, but these would not be sufficient to lead to his death. The doctors who conducted the autopsy have not yet reached a conclusion that the death was caused due to cardiac arrest. Further inspection of his arteries is required to confirm this,” said the officer.
The police have also sent the internal organs to the regional chemical laboratory in Kakkanad to get more clarity on his death. “Since it is a long process, it will take a few months to get the report. It is too early to reach a conclusion in the case at this stage. If the scientists could find the presence of any chemical inside the body, the case will be more complicated,” the officer added.