KOCHI : In a suspected revenge murder, a Nedumbassery native involved in multiple criminal cases was hacked to death by two other gang members at Kurumassery near Nedumbassery in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The deceased is Athani native Vinu Vikraman, 33, who was involved in multiple criminal cases including murder. He also faced preventive detention under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities Prevention Act (KAAPA) in 2022.
The police have arrested two gang members – Deepak and Nithin – in connection with the incident.
According to the police, Vinu, Deepak and Nithin were former members of a criminal gang. On Tuesday night, a fight ensued between Vinu and the accused persons at abar hotel in Kochi. While returning home, Vinu was intercepted by the duo and they hacked him multiple times. It was a motorcyclist who found Vinu lying with multiple injuries at the roadside in Kurumassery around 1.30am. He informed the Chengamanad police who later shifted Vinu to a nearby hospital. Vinu succumbed to injuries in the morning.
Chengamanad police registered a case and identified the accused persons involved. The police soon took Deepak and Nithin into custody and recorded their arrest by evening. According to A Prasad, DySP, Aluva, the investigation team is checking whether there is any criminal conspiracy behind the murder.
“From our preliminary probe, Deepak and Nithin were directly involved in the murder. It has to be checked whether any other persons were involved in the conspiracy. Both deceased and accused persons have criminal antecedents. Police had taken action against them under KAAPA earlier,” he said.
According to police, Vinu, Deepak and Nithin used to work for a gangster named Binoy alias Gillappi.
“Vinu’s father was assaulted by one of the gang members following an internal issue in the gang. Vinu believed that his father was attacked on the instructions of gang leader Binoy. He avenged the assault on his father by murdering Binoy in 2019. After the incident, Vinu was in jail for a long period. Later, when he was released, police invoked KAAPA against him,” a police officer said.