Industrialist, wife found murdered in Kerala: Cops
The bodies of TK Vijayakumar (71) and his wife Meera (67) were found soaked in blood in separate rooms of the palatial house
A prominent industrialist and his wife were found murdered at their home in Thiruvathukkal near Kottayam town in Kerala, police said Tuesday, with a hunt for the suspects underway.
The bodies of TK Vijayakumar (71) and his wife Meera (67) were found soaked in blood in separate rooms of the palatial house by the domestic help Revamma when she turned up for work on Tuesday morning, said police officials.
Vijayakumar was the owner of the Indraprastham auditorium in the heart of Kottayam town and several other business enterprises.
“The murders were committed in a brutal fashion. The weapon used in the murders, a billhook, was picked out by the accused from the outhouse within the premises and has been recovered. The scientific examinations by fingerprint and dog squads are currently going on. We have clear clues about the suspects and we will catch them soon,” Shahul Hameed, Kottayam district police chief, told reporters.
While the officer said he could not confirm at the time whether the murders were the handiwork of one accused or multiple persons, he suspected that the accused were connected to the household in some way.
“The suspect is seen to have entered the house at night through the front door using a screw-driver and drilling a hole in the nearby window. He had seemingly brought a grinding stone perhaps to smash open the door, but it wasn’t used and has been found at the spot. The DVR of the CCTV cameras at the house is missing,” Hameed added.
The police, he said, are reviewing CCTV footage from cameras near the house where the murders took place and at the railway station and bus stand from where the accused may have escaped. A pet dog at the house was found to be sedated hinting at the pre-meditative nature of the crime.
Tito, a former councillor who was present when the police were conducting the inquest at the house of the deceased, said, “The faces of the husband and wife were extremely disfigured. The bodies were found in two different rooms with no clothes on.”
Couple’s son Gowtham found dead in 2017
Vijayakumar and Meera’s son Gowtham, an engineering graduate and IT entrepreneur, was found dead near the railway tracks near Kottayam on June 3, 2017.
Though his body was found by the side of the tracks, it was presumed that he was not hit by the train. The car in which he had travelled to get to the tracks was found over 200 metres away by the police with blood stains on the seats and a knife found in the back.
Though the police had filed a case of unnatural death then, the family felt the probe was ineffective and moved the High Court for a CBI probe. In March this year, the HC ordered a CBI probe and the central agency filed an FIR on March 21.
When asked by reporters if there was a connection between the two incidents, Hameed, the Kottayam SP, denied it. “The son’s death was in 2017 and an old case. We don’t have suspicions that the two incidents are connected in any way.”
