THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Tamil Nadu police have launched a manhunt for a medical equipment dealer from Thiruvananthapuram who had allegedly assisted a habitual offender to murder the Kerala businessman at Ottamaram in Kaliyikkavila on Monday.
TN police sources said Sajikumar aka Ambili, who was arrested for murdering S Deepu, had confessed that he committed the crime at the behest of a medical equipment dealer, identified as Sunil Kumar. It was Sunil who gave a surgical blade to Sajikumar to slit Deepu’s throat.
Police confirmed from a CCTV visual that after committing the crime, Sajikumar had approached a nearby medical shop and made a call from one of the staff’s phone. After verifying the phone call details, the cops identified that the call was made to Sunil.
According to sources, Sunil and Sajikumar were friends with Deepu. Sajikumar, who lived close to Deepu’s quarry, was hired as a muscleman to resolve the issues at the quarry. The probe also revealed that the three were having financial issues. Deepu had taken a large amount as bank loan and surprisingly, he had multiple life insurance policies, some of them drawn very recently.
The cops were briefly caught in a fix as Sajikumar claimed Deepu himself had given a contract to murder him to get the life insurance death benefits for his family. However, this claim was debunked after they realised that it was riddled with lies and contradictions.
“Due to technical reasons, the nominees were to receive only 20% of the total amount. For that paltry amount, it was unlikely that Deepu would want someone to kill him. Also, many bits of Sajikumar’s statement were not aligning,” sources said.
They further said that Sajikumar was well-versed in handling police interrogation owing to his past involvements in criminal cases. “He was spinning stories every now and then to throw the interrogators off the trail. So we could not believe all the things he said,” sources said.
Meanwhile, the police still believe the murder was done for gains as part of the booty which went missing from Deepu’s car was recovered from Sajikumar’s residence. Police sources said that a total `8 lakh was recovered, but have ruled out the involvement of Sajikumar’s wife in the case.
They further said that the murder was pre-planned and Ottamaram was deliberately selected as it was poorly lit compared to nearby areas. “It appears as if the killer was waiting to cross Kerala. He might have thought that committing the murder in another state would invite less police attention,” the sources added.
