KOCHI: Police cracked the 17-year-old mystery surrounding the brutal murder of a 74-year-old woman and her nephew at Ponekkara in Kochi with the arrest of K P Jayanandan, aka Ripper Jayanandan, a serial killer who was involved in eight murders and more than 35 robberies.
The crime branch, which investigated the case, got a breakthrough after Jayanandan confessed to the crime to one of his cell mates at Poojapura central jail. Jayanandan beat V Nanikkutty Ammal and her nephew T V Narayana Iyer to death and decamped with 40 sovereigns of gold on May 30, 2004. He had also raped the elderly woman after killing her with an iron rod.
“In the Puthenvelikkara murder case, in which Jayanandan, 54, was sent to jail, the Supreme Court had reduced his capital punishment to life imprisonment. In the excitement, he disclosed his hand in the dual murder to one of his jail mates, who is also a police informer. This extra-judicial confession helped the investigators link his role in the dual murder case,” said Crime Branch ADGP S Sreejith, addressing a news conference here on Monday.
Though the case was registered with the Kalamassery police station, it was later handed over to the crime branch following the pressure put by the action council on the state government. “His modus operandi in the case was almost similar to other murders he committed in Paravur, Mala and Kodungallur. In almost all the cases, the victims were elderly people.
He always targeted the heads of the victims using tools obtained from the crime scene or the immediate neighbourhood. Though the police suspected his involvement in the Ponekkara murder, they couldn’t collect conclusive evidence to arraign him as the accused,” Sreejith said. Meanwhile, police who recorded Jayanandan’s arrest on Thursday are in the process of collecting scientific evidence against the accused.
“He used to rape the victims after the murder. In this case too, he raped the 74-year-old woman,” he added. Sreejith said the accused always tried to conceal the evidence by compromising the crime scenes. In some cases, he poured kerosene, chilly powder and turmeric powder to disrupt the investigation.
According to the police, in 2003, Jayanandan committed his first major offence when he looted Rs 17,000 and a video cassette player from the residence of Jose before killing him using a crowbar. A year later, he killed two women.