Kerala - Kochi   

Edappally murder case transferred to Crime Branch

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, JUNE 10. Even as the twin murder at Edappally gets into the list of cases transferred from the local police to the Crime Branch, the authorities do not seem to address the real issues faced by the police force.

There are some officers in the force who advocate transferring of cases of such magnitude to the Crime Branch without much delay, when the evidence is not lost and the incident is fresh in the memory of the witnesses. The logic behind this being that the existing police force often remains tied up with routine law and order maintenance work.

At the same time, the police sources claimed that except for a couple of cases handed over to the Crime Branch, the local police could detect all the crimes committed in the city limits during the last two years.

In the Edappally murder case, the local police started off with the assumption that the crime was committed by someone known to the deceased as the door was not forced open and that the culprit's aim was to steal the money kept by one of the victims, Nanikutty Ammal, in connection with a temple chit fund. Nanikutty Ammal and her nephew, T.V. Narayana Iyer, were found murdered at their residence near the Chennamkulangara Sree Krishna Temple, Edappally.

However, the Crime Branch starts from the inference that the crime has a professional touch. Though it was too early to comment on it, there was enough preliminary evidence that the suspect had a clear idea about how to throw the police off-track, said Rajesh Diwan, DIG, Crime Branch, who will be heading the investigation.

The local police officers involved in the investigation said that a couple of the fingerprints identified from the spot of crime could be that of the suspect. These fingerprints did not match with people who were contacted by the police during investigation.

Even though the Crime Branch officials have suggested the formation of a joint team, including officers from both the groups, the local police prefer to underplay their contribution in the future investigation. It is learnt that the move to form a joint team was made to ensure that the investigation and crime prevention are done simultaneously.

Three other major cases transferred from the local police to the Crime Branch recently include the murder of Kamala Vasava Menon, the finding of the burnt body of a man near the Marine Drive and cash theft from the KSFE main branch.

Kamala Vasava Menon (77) was found murdered at her residence on the Kalathiparamabil Road on October 13, 2002. The local police who investigated the case, before it was transferred to the Crime Branch on March 29, 2003, could not identify much leads to the suspect.

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