The special team probing the murder of tipper lorry driver Saji, an accomplice of gangster Choozhattukotta Ambily, on Sunday arrested one of the key accused who directly took part in the murder.
Manu alias Chenda Manu was arrested from the International Airport here in the morning when he arrived to escape to Abu Dhabi in an Oman Airways flight. The police, which apprehended Manu at 4.20 a.m, after questioning him claimed that Manu was directly involved in the ‘action’.
Manu, who returned recently from abroad, is known as a key associate of Soju alias Ammakkoru Makan, the notorious gangster who has more than two dozen criminal cases registered against him in various police stations. It is also learnt that Manu used to finance Soju whenever the latter was in crisis.
As Saji was known as a trusted accomplice of Ambily, Soju and his gang members decided to use Saji as a bait to trap Ambily. For that, they assaulted Saji and made him call Ambily on cell phone. Soju also had a plan to bring Ambily unarmed to their area. But Ambily did not respond to Saji’s call. Tired of waiting, they wounded Saji with sharp-edged weapons and left him bleeding near Nedumkad school, according to the police. The wounds, according to the police, were inflicted by Soju and Manu.
The police team from Karamana station after being informed by a newspaper boy visited the area and found a man lying on the roadside. They thought that the person was in an inebriated state. The police team had, however, said that they didn’t find him bleeding. However, Manu had reportedly confessed to the police that the blood was wiped using the trouser worn by Saji. Manu is an accused in several criminal cases registered in the Karamana police station. The arrest was made by a police team led by DCP Putta Vimaladithya.
The team comprised Fort AC M Radhakrishnan Nair, Thampanoor CI Sheen Tharayil, SIs R Sivakumar, K V Ramanan and city police shadow team.