When an SMS helped police crack woman murder case in Kochi
KOCHI: When the Poovar police received a missing woman complaint in June 2019, little did they know that the woman they were about to search for was no longer alive. Rakhi Mol, a native of Poovar and employee of a private firm at Kalamassery, had left her house and failed to return, prompting her father to file a complaint.
The police tracked her phone call details and found that she was having an affair with an army man named Akhil Nair. During the subsequent investigation, the police apprehended Adarsh Nair, a friend of Akhil, for questioning. However, what greatly aided the police in cracking the case was a message sent from Rakhi’s SIM card.
The message, allegedly written by Rakhi herself, stated that she was eloping to Chennai with another man and advised her family and Akhil not to pursue her. The police’s cyber investigation revealed that the phone used to send the message did not belong to Rakhi. Further investigation uncovered that the SIM card was being used in a second-hand mobile phone purchased from a shop. This finding heightened suspicions that something sinister may have happened to Rakhi.
During the interrogation of Adarsh, it was revealed that he, along with Akhil and his brother Rahul, had suffocated Rakhi while they were travelling to Amboori in a car. Akhil wanted to eliminate Rakhi to marry another woman he had become involved with.
Since Rakhi was aware of his intentions, Akhil feared that she might interfere with his plans, leading them to decide to get rid of her. While Rakhi was seated in the front passenger seat, Akhil and Adarsh smothered her from behind using the seat belt.
They then dumped her body in a pit dug behind Akhil’s house. To hide the body, they sprinkled salt on it and covered the pit with soil, planting rubber saplings on top. The trio had planned to send a message from Rakhi’s mobile phone to mislead the investigation. With this malicious intent, they took her phone before disposing of her body in the pit. However, they were unaware that the phone could only be unlocked using Rakhi’s fingerprints.
“Their plans failed because they couldn’t unlock her mobile phone. That’s why they had to buy another phone and insert her SIM card into it. This turned out to be their biggest mistake, as we found that the message did not originate from Rakhi’s phone,” said a member of the investigative team. Public Prosecutor M Salahudeen emphasised that the recovery of the mobile phone used by the culprits to send the message became crucial evidence during the trial.
“They attempted to manipulate the investigation by sending a message, but their plan backfired,” he said.
The trio was found guilty of the charges and sentenced to life imprisonment by an additional sessions court on June 6. Akhil, 24, his brother Rahul, 27, and their friend Adarsh, 23, were sentenced by Additional Sessions Court Judge K Vishnu, who found them guilty of murder and destruction of evidence.