KOCHI: In a gruesome incident, a 26-year-old woman, a mother of two kids, was brutally murdered by her lover and her body was dumped at Thumboormozhi forest in Athirappilly. The deceased is Athira, the wife of Sanal, hailing from Parakkadavu in Angamaly. The accused, Akhil, is her colleague at a supermarket. He confessed to the crime following his arrest.
The body, which was in a decomposed state, was recovered from a heap of dried leaves inside the forest on Friday morning. Police said Akhil strangled her to death using her own shawl and later concealed the body using dried leaves.
According to the police, the probe into the case began with Athira’s husband filing a missing person case with the Kalady police on Saturday. Following this, Rural SP Vivek Kumar constituted a special team to investigate the case.
“Since the woman kept her phone in the house, we started a probe using the numbers she used to contact. Though we questioned Akhil initially, we couldn’t find enough details to prove his role,” said a police officer.However, the police were not ready to believe his version completely. They inspected the Kalady bus stop where Athira’s husband dropped her off on Saturday morning.
“When we inspected the CCTV footage, we found that Athira had travelled in a car from the bus stop. When we traced the vehicle’s registration number, we learned that it was a rented car. Though the car’s original owner didn’t know anything about it, with his help, we were able to trace the person who rented it. It was Akhil. With this, we nabbed him, and he confessed to the crime. Athira’s body was located based on his information,” the officer said.
Police said that a tiff between Athira and Akhil over the return of gold and money, which Akhil borrowed from her, likely resulted in the murder.
The duo had met only six months ago. According to the police, Athira and Akhil began a relationship when they started working at a supermarket in Angamaly. “Both of them are married and have kids,” an officer said.