KOCHI: The body of a migrant worker from Assam was found in a sack buried in a heap of sand at a tile manufacturing unit in Poothrika under the Puthencruz police station limits on Monday. The deceased was identified as Raja Das, 28. The police suspect he was murdered by another migrant worker identified as Dipen Kumar Das, 26, of Murshidabad, West Bengal. The police have launched a search for Dipen who has gonemissing from Monday morning. The two were employed at Pultima Pavers for the past one month and were staying together in a room at the unit.
Ernakulam Rural SP K Karthick, who visited the spot, told TNIE that a special team has been formed to probe the murder and an alert has been issued to all railway stations and bus stations to track Dipen.
The incident came to light around 10am when two local woman workers came to the unit and found blood on the floor. As they trailed the blood stains leading to the heap of sand, they saw a sack buried in it. They immediately alerted the owner of the unit.
A team from the Puthencruz police station reached the spot and recovered the body from the sack. The police also found blood on the wall and the bed in the room where the workers used to stay. The room was locked from outside when the police reached the spot.According to the police’s preliminary findings, Raja was murdered when he was asleep and the murderer used a sharp heavy object to hit on his head. The police said the victim’s head had a deep wound.
Later, the body was squeezed into a sack and dragged to the heap of sand.“The murder might have taken place past midnight,” said an officer.Dipen was last spotted by local people at the unit around 8am. He was also seen at the nearby junction around 6.30am. Though the owner of the unit and his family stay on the same premises, they didn’t hear any sound or noticed unusual activity on Sunday night or Monday morning.“We came to know about the murder only when the two woman workers alerted us.
We saw both Dipen and Raja yesterday but never noticed any issue between them. The two migrant labourers were arranged through a labour contractor a month ago,” said Eldho P Varghese, owner of the unit. Fingerprint experts and forensic team also examined the crime scene. The body was later shifted for postmortem. Though Dipen’s mobile phone was found switched off, the police have started tracking his mobile tower location.