KOCHI: Police have arrested two persons in connection with the murder of a 55-year-old woman who was found dead in the bathroom of a rented apartment in Kalamassery near Kochi, last week.
The accused were identified as Girish Babu, 42, of Maithripuram, Thrikkakara and Kadheeja alias Prabitha, 42, of Eroor, Tripunithura.
According to the police, the deceased Jayesy Abraham, of Chunikuzhi, Perumbavoor, was residing alone at an apartment in Koonamthai, Kalamassery. She was into the real estate business. The death of Jayesy was revealed when her daughter staying in Canada tried to contact her multiple times on Sunday, November 17. Based on the information from the daughter, when police reached the apartment, she was found dead in the bathroom. The postmortem report revealed that Jayesy died after being hit on her head with a hard object.
After checking CCTV cameras in the entire Koonamthai area, police found that a person wearing a T-shirt and helmet had reached the apartment before the murder. Thus further probe led to the arrest of Girish and Kadeeja.
Police further said that Girish was working at an IT company in Infopark. He was under severe financial constraints after borrowing money from online loan apps. Girish and Kadeeja were lovers. They met each other through their common friend Jayesy. "As Jayesy recently brokered the sale of several properties, Girish believed that she had kept gold and money at her apartment. Thus Girish convinced Kadheeja to get money and gold ornaments from Jayesy to pay off his debt and they could live together. The planning to murder Jaysey and rob her money and gold started two months back," a police officer.
Thus Girish travelled from Thrikkakara to Koonamthai multiple times to spot the areas where the presence of CCTV cameras is low. Similarly to prevent police suspecting his involvement after checking Call Data Records (CDR), he stopped contacting Jayesy over the phone. "He carefully selected Sunday for executing the murder as other residents would go to their native places on weekends. Girish started from the home in the morning on his brother's motorcycle. After riding the motorcycle through various bylanes, he parked the motorcycle at Pipeline Road in Unichira. Later, he reached the apartment after changing two auto rickshaws. To prevent getting his face detected on CCTV cameras, he wore the helmet," a police officer.
After reaching Jaysey's house, they consumed liquor together. When inebriated Jayesy went to bed to sleep, and the accused attacked her with a dumble he brought in his bag. When Jayesy screamed due to pain, Girish shut her mouth using a cloth and ensured her death.
"To prevent people suspect Jayesy's death as murder, Girish dragged her dead body to the bathroom. Later, he cleaned blood stains on the floor and changed his dress before leaving the apartment. He then stole two mobile phones, two bangles and a gold chain of Jayesy. Before leaving the house, he changed his dress and locked the door using a duplicate key. Then Girish reached Unichira where the motorcycle was parked on an autorickshaw before reaching his house," a police officer said.
A day later, Girish informed Kadeeja about murdering Jayesy. Following the news reports about the police investigation into the murder of Jayesy, Girish reached the Koonamthai clandestinely and observed police presence at the apartment. "The breakthrough, received after we found one CCTV camera in which a person wearing a helmet was found walking on the road. It was weird that a person was walking on the road wearing a helmet. Thus further investigation led to the accused," a police officer said.
Police officials said the duo were taken into custody on Sunday. Later in the interrogation, they confessed to committing the murder. Police recorded the arrest of the duo and they will be produced before the court soon.