KASARAGOD: Vellarikundu police on Thursday arrested Albin Benny (22), a trained automobile mechanic, for the murder of his 16-year-old sister Ann Mary, and an attempt to murder of his parents Benny Olikkal and Bessy.
"The murder of Ann Mary was ruthless and diabolic," said inspector K Premsadan, station house officer of Vellarikundu, who investigated the case.
Albin tried to eliminate his parents and sister -- residents of Arinkallu in Balal panchayat -- to usurp the family property, said the officer.
"If everything went as per Albin's plot, he had planned to pass off the three murders as suicide," he said. But not everything went as per his "much-rehearsed plan", the inspector said.
'He saw her dying slowly'
On July 30, a Thursday, Albin asked his mother Bessy and sister Ann Mary to make him ice-cream, according to the police.
Ann Mary, who had cleared class X and was waiting to join higher secondary school, decided to whip a bourbon ice-cream and bought the ingredients from a bakery in Vellarikkundu. The mother and daughter made two buckets of ice creams -- one was placed in the freezer while the second was kept in the fridge.
By evening, the ice-cream was ready and all the four members of the family consumed it. That night, the inspector said, Albin, emptied half a tube of Ratol paste into the ice-cream bucket placed below in the fridge.
On the morning of July 31, Ann Mary mixed the ice-cream in both the buckets and placed it in the fridge.
"That evening the father and daughter consumed it but Albin excused himself saying he had throat pain," said the officer.
Bessy had just a bit because she found the taste to be foul. She asked Albin to give the rest of the ice-cream to the dog.
Since the morning of August 1, a Saturday, Ann Mary started vomiting and suffered diarrhoea. Her father first took her to a homeopathy clinic and then to a cooperative hospital in Vellarikkundu.
After several tests, the doctors concluded on August 4 that she had jaundice because her liver was not in good condition; her eyes had turned yellow, and so was her urine.
The same day, Benny's elder brother took Ann Mary to his house at Pulingoth near Cherupuzha in Kannur district saying allopathy did not have the medicine for jaundice and that there was a good practitioner of alternative medicine near his house.
But her condition worsened and on August 5, she was taken to a private hospital in Cherupuzha where she died.
Cherupuzha police registered a case of unnatural death because Ann Mary's father too started to show similar symptoms for which he was taken to MIMS in Kozhikode.
"MIMS found that 80% of Benny's liver was damaged and he could be saved only with a liver transplant," said Premsadan.
The transplant would cost around Rs 35 lakh and the medicine would cost Rs 35,000 every month, said a neighbour.
With no money, the family brought back Benny and admitted him to the Taluk Hospital in Payyannur.
Meanwhile, Ann Mary's post-mortem revealed the presence of yellow phosphorus -- an ingredient of Ratol paste -- in her body.
Rat poison is slow to act but seriously damages the liver, said the inspector.
"All these while, Albin ruthlessly stood like a spectator and did nothing to save the lives of his father and sister. It will be a miracle if Benny survives," he said.
Incriminating evidence
Even before Cherupuzha police formally handed over the case to Vellarikkundu, district police chief Shilpa Dyavaiah asked Premsadan to begin the investigation into the case.
Vellarikkundu police sealed the house and managed to get hold of Albin's mobile phone. "He stayed in his relative's house but we kept a watch on him. He was not given an inkling that he was a suspect," said Premsadan.
The police checked the search history on his phone and found that he had Google-searched information on rat poison and how it could affect the human body and children.
"Then we checked with the shops in Vellarikkundu and found a shopkeeper who said Albin bought rat poison from his shop on July 29, a day before he asked Ann Mary to make ice-cream," said the inspector.
The motive?
Benny is a hardworking farmer with four acres of land. He has a pig farm, poultry farm, and rubber trees to tap.
Albin completed an automobile mechanic course from an industrial training institute (ITI) in Kottayam but he did not look for a job. "At home, he did not help his father nor did he do any other work. That was a cause of friction between the two," said Premsadan.
He did not enjoy a good relationship with his sister either.
"Albin spends a lot of money. He has several female friends from whom he used to borrow money from to live a fast life. He found his father and the rest of the family a hindrance to his lifestyle," said Premsadan.
The officer said Albin wanted to usurp the land not to work but to sell it off for some quick bucks.
He had earlier mixed Ratol paste in chicken curry but it did not work. "So he checked Google to find the right dosage," said the inspector.