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Kerala Police crack murder case, say killers took cues from films
Police said two films - Malayalam crime thriller - ‘Drishyam’ and Tamil romantic hit ‘96’ - were central to the murder plot as the couple seemed take cues from the former to cover up all evidences.
The Kerala Police on Tuesday claimed it has a solved a three-month-old murder case by arresting a man and his girlfriend who allegedly killed his wife in September.
Police said two films - Malayalam crime thriller - ‘Drishyam’ and Tamil romantic hit ‘96’ - were central to the murder plot as the couple seemed take cues from the former to cover up all evidences.
Police said Premkumar, who was working at the front office of a hotel in Kochi after he returned from West Asia a couple of years ago and his girlfriend Sunitha Devi, a nursing superintendent, were arrested in connection with the murder of former’s wife Vidya on September 21.
“During questioning both took names of these two movies and thought they could easily get away with the murder. Initially both tried their best to mislead investigators and later they were forced to own up the crime when police closed in on them,” said Thrikkakara (Ernakulam) assistant commissioner of police A Viswanath.
Police said Premkumar (46) had met his school girl friend during an alumni meeting of the school last year. Although both were married, they decided to renew their old friendship. Devi who was working in Hyderabad later shifted to Thiruvananthapuram and took up a job in a hospital. But Premkumar’s wife learnt of his affair it and opposed their relationship. Police said later they hatched a conspiracy to eliminate her.
Police said Premkumar took his wife to Thiruvananthapuram in the guise of Ayurveda treatment and hired a villa. Devi also took a room near the villa. On the night of September 21, he allegedly forced his wife to drink alcohol and when she was fully drunk, he strangled her to death with the help of Devi. They kept the body for a day at the resort and next day loaded it in their car and drove 100 km to Valliyur in Tamil Nadu and dumped it in a secluded spot and fled.
Police said after returning to Kerala, Premkumar filed a complaint that his wife was missing. Police registered a missing person report on Sept 23. Later her phone was traced from a long-distance train in Bihar.
“He dumped the phone in the waste basket of a train to mislead investigators. Once the phone was recovered he filed a complaint with the police commissioner that some of the investigating members were harassing him. But police kept a vigil on him and tracked his movements,” Viswanath said.
Finally, two days back he made a WhatsApp call to the police owning up the crime. Later police arrested both from a hotel in Ernakulam. The ACP said both said two hit movies, Drishyam’ (Malayalam) and ‘96’ (Tamil) motivated them to commit the murder. Mohanlal-starrer Drishyam’ shows how the protagonist destroyed evidences of a murder to protect his family. Vijay Sethupati-Trisha starrer ‘96’ is all about the nostalgic reunion of 1996-batch school classmates in Tamil Nadu.
