Thiruvananthapuram: A team of Kerala police that is on the hunt for a suspect in the murder of a couple and their son in Kottayam, who were running a laundry unit, has identified the suspect’s residence nearly 2,500km from Kottayam, in Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Police believe the suspect’s real name is Narendar. He had told his employers at the Stiff and Shine laundry in Kottayam that he was Jai Singh. Shortly after the murder, police found out his name was Nihal Singh, based on the details he had given while applying for a mobile phone connection. It now transpires that both those names were fake.
The three victims, Lalason (71), his wife Prasannakumari (62) and their son Praveen Lal (28) were found murdered at their home last weekend. The murder is expected to have been committed around 11pm after Lalason had spoken to his younger son, Vipin Lal, who was away, at around 10.30pm.
After murdering the trio, the suspect, who had recently joined the laundry unit, is believed to have electrocuted and poured acid on the bodies.
The police team led by circle inspector Saju Varghese has reportedly recovered from Narendar’s house one of the mobile phones that the suspect had stolen from the Lalason family. However, the suspect could not be apprehended.
The suspect had left one of the mobile phones stolen from his victims on a train, apparently following a movie script, to confuse police who would search the trail of mobile phone signals. Police believe he left it on the Jayanthi Janatha train, and then escaped to Uttar Pradesh.
The incident has rung alarm bells among those in Kerala who have hired migrant workers from other states for household work. Estimates vary between one and two million regarding the number of migrant workers presently employed in Kerala.
On Friday, the body of a migrant worker from Assam was found in a sack, abandoned near Vaikom in Kottayam district.
