The State police on Sunday revved up their efforts to determine a motive to the abduction and rape of a woman actor in Kochi in February.
Officials privy to the probe hinted that the police are still confronted with the difficulty of trying to understand the reasons for the intent to commit the crime.
They have questioned the prime accused, Pulsar Suni, several times. The police appeared to be attempting to retrace the suspect’s routine in the run up to the crime.
Suni’s finances are an area of intense focus for the police.
They are trying to determine whether the suspect received any “capital finance” prior to the operation.
If any such cash flow could be detected, it could further buttress the theory that the attack on the actor was a contract hit.
Transactions
Suni’s credit card transactions, ATM withdrawals, electronic payments, and online purchases, if any, will be scrutinised. So would those of his family members and associates. Suni’s spending and travel pattern in the days prior to the crime will be scrutinised to detect sizeable hard cash transactions, if any.
Officials said the initial theory that the accused had perpetrated the crime on their own volition and photographed the act on a mobile phone to drive a hard bargain with the rich actor appeared to be losing ground.
Another theory that the crime might be linked to disagreements, financial as well as personal, in the entertainment industry seemed to have gained some traction.
Team visits showroom
An indication of that approach came on Sunday when the police searched a showroom owned by another woman actor in Kochi ostensibly to verify a statement by an accused that an associate of his had deposited the mobile phone memory card purportedly containing the victim’s images at the spot.
Officials said the investigation was now meandering in and out of realms in the film industry hitherto unknown to outsiders. For one, it has shone light on the visceral rivalries in the industry and triggered a media maelstrom in the process.
