KOCHI: A burglary. A marriage. And a murder. The sequence of events had the makings of a crime thriller with the police nabbing the four accused within 48-hours of a charred body being found near a railway track at Pulleppady in Kochi. It turned out that the mastermind of the theft-and-murder — Dinoy Christo, 24, who was arrested along with three others on Thursday — set ablaze one of his aides to destroy evidence of the burglary at his uncle’s house a day before his sister’s marriage on January 1.
The story begins on the evening of December 31 when Dinoy’s uncle and family were at his home in Thoppumpady, on the eve of his sister’s marriage. The five-member gang, including Dinoy, knowing that his relatives will not return till dawn, broke into his uncle’s home in Elamakkara and decamped with 127 sovereigns of gold ornaments. When the police arrived there to collect evidence after the theft, Dinoy, the nephew, was present at the burgled house. “From that time, he was under our scanner,” an officer said.
From the site, they managed to get the fingerprints of Joby, 19, one of the gang members.
Both Dinoy and Joby were asked to appear at the Elamakkara police station at 11am on Wednesday. Dinoy arrived at the station alone. Around the same time Pulleppady residents reported to the Central station that a charred body was lying near the railway tracks. During quizzing, Dinoy confessed to the crime, the police said.
Most jewellery recovered
“The police collected fingerprints from the site of the theft and summoned Dinoy and Joby for interrogation. Dinoy wore gloves during the theft while Joby didn’t. Hence, Dinoy directed him to go into hiding but he didn’t obey. Dinoy murdered Joby to prevent the police reaching him,” an officer said.
The police said Dinoy set Joby’s body ablaze after hammering him to death. The other gang members arrested are Haris V aka Sulu, 34, a transgender hailing from Tirur in Malappuram, Manilal aka Surya, 19, of Kannamaly, and Pradeep, 25, of Punalur.
“Dinoy and Joby drank from a bar in the city on Tuesday night. Dinoy then took him to a secluded area near the railway track and killed him. Dinoy confessed to the murder,” said City Police Commissioner H Nagaraju.The three other accused were involved in the theft and provided assistance to Dinoy to sell the loot. The police recovered a majority of the gold ornaments. Dinoy sold jewellery worth Rs 2.5 lakh at a jewellery shop in Malappuram, Rs 1.5 lakh of which was recovered from him.Interestingly, Dinoy’s uncle, whose house was burgled, had donated Rs 5 lakh for his sister’s marriage.