The police are still struggling to get any clues on the murder of health inspector S. Vijayakumar in the early hours of Friday at Veeyapuram, near Haripad, here. With preliminary investigations indicating that it was not a murder for gain, the mystery is only deepening, the police admit.
According to the police, Vijayakumar was not known to have any rivalry or enmity with anybody. After interacting with about 40 witnesses, including Vijayakumar's wife, police said they were yet to find out why Vijayakumar, who reached home in the evening as usual after office on Friday, left his residence on his bike about 9.30 p.m. Whether he was lured out is being verified through the phone calls that came to his mobile phone from Thursday.
At the same time, adding to the mystery is the fact that a sum of Rs.19,000 that was in Vijayakumar's possession at the time of the murder was intact. His mobile or any other articles were also not stolen, leading to the assumption that the murder was not one for gain. No weapons that could have been used for the murder too have been found, police said.
Police also said they were verifying the fact that Vijayakumar was involved in a bike accident about 10 months ago near the same spot where he was stabbed on Friday. Another two-wheeler is said to have hit Vijayakumar's bike and sped off without stopping that day. Whether there could be any links between the two incidents was being ascertained, Mannar Circle Inspector T. Rajappan, who is leading the investigation team, told The Hindu .
“We are also probing whether any hired hands or quotation gangs are involved. We are in the process of questioning witnesses, 40 of them who have already been questioned, including his wife and also the female colleague with whom he is supposed to have been in conversation over mobile phone when he was stabbed,” Mr. Rajappan said.
