KANNUR: A prisoner at the Kannur Central Jail has been arrested for beating to death a co-prisoner with a metal walking stick. The Kannur Town police arrested Palakkad native Velayudhan, 75, on Friday after another prisoner Karunakaran, 86, was found dead in the jail on Sunday under mysterious circumstances. The walking stick, incidentally, was being used by the deceased, the police said.
An autopsy performed at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kannur revealed that the death was caused by a blow to the head with a blunt rod. The Kannur Town police later came to the jail and interrogated Velayudhan, before taking him into custody.
Guards had found Karunakaran lying in a pool of blood in his Block 10 cell around 11pm. Though the authorities rushed him to the district hospital, he was declared dead. Karunakaran suffered injuries to his head, leg and elbow. The subsequent investigation revealed it was a case of murder. A blood-stained iron walking stick was found near Block 10. Velayudhan was the only one with Karunakaran at the time of the incident, an officer said. The police also found a wound in Velayudhan’s leg.
Investigation officer Sreejith Koderi told TNIE that the two used to have arguments.
“Karunakaran was convicted in a murder case in Mavelikkara and was serving life term in the Thiruvananthapuram central prison. As he was a native of Kannur, Karunakaran was transferred to the Kannur central prison following his request. He was unable to walk by himself. That’s why the prison authorities allowed him to use the walking stick. Velayudhan used this walking stick to kill Karunakaran,” Sreejith said.
Velayudhan is also serving a life term for the murder of his wife, hitting her on the head with a hammer.
Second murder in 20 years
This is the second murder in Kannur Central Jail in the past 20 years. CPM worker Ravindran (47) was killed in the courtyard of Block 7 of the central prison on the evening of April 6, 2004. The murder happened during a clash between CPM prisoners and RSS-BJP prisoners. Ravindran was beaten to death.
The attack was carried out using the weapons kept by the accused in the store room of the 8th block of the jail and iron bar and rods taken from the fencing. Ravindran died while under treatment at the Kannur medical college hospital. He was convicted for the murder of an RSS worker and was serving a life term. There were 31 accused persons, who were convicted in various cases. The court acquitted 21 persons and sentenced nine RSS-BJP activists to life imprisonment in the murder case.