Friendship, murder and video-tape

Despite leaving no clues about the murder he committed of his friend, a marriage video-tape `fixed' the accused person, writes T. Lalith Singh.

LEAVE NO stone unturned while looking for clues to solve a crime. That's the thumb rule for any investigating officer, for a vital clue to a crime can come from strange and unexpected quarters. Like this video-tape of a marriage that came handy in solving a murder case under the Market police station limits recently.

The dawn of August 10 was no different from any other business day at the popular Sun Lodge in Secunderabad. It soon got buzzing with usual activity. The boys went about their job, knocking doors and seeking permission from guests to clean rooms. The boy assigned to the nondescript room No. 213, too, climbed upstairs, oblivious to the fact that he was heading to knock a dead man's room.

The room which was taken by a person who gave his name as M. Rajesh from Guntakal was locked from outside. Enough to arouse suspicion as the boy could swear that the particular guest was not seen moving out. The lodge manager who was alerted did not waste much time in informing the Market police of their suspicion. The script surely had that familiar streak. A police team broke open the room and found it to be turning true. There was a dead body lying in the room.

It was a crime which offered no clues at the scene of offence. There was not even the slightest information that could help in identifying the deceased person. The name and address entered in the lodge records, too, were found to be false. The police then decided to release the pictures of the body in newspapers with a hope that somebody who could identify the person would stumble upon them. Their ploy did yield the desired results when a woman approached the Market police on September 14 saying that the photos resembled her husband, Jacob Mathews, who was missing for the last four days. She later identified the deceased person and claimed the body.

Meanwhile, the investigating team which subjected the lodge staff to some sustained questioning found there was another person who accompanied Mathews when he checked into the room. The questioning provided brief outlines about the `other' person. Family members of Mathews were also confronted with the question, "Did you suspect anyone?" Though they failed to name any suspect, they said the deceased was in the habit of consuming liquor with one Michael Vijay Raj, who worked as a cooking supervisor in a star hotel.

Not willing to rule out any possibility, the team decided to run a check on Michael. They wanted some pictures to identify him and were told that Michael did attend the marriage of Mathews in 1999 and could be seen in the video recording. Worth taking a chance, the police team promptly took the video-tape and held a screening of it for the lodge staff.

Indeed, when the frame showing Michael came on the screen, the staff identified him immediately. Michael, who was taken for interrogation, made a clean breast of having committed the murder of Mathews. It turned out that the close friendship between Michael and Mathews went sour after the latter began making advances towards Michael's wife, who was working as a nurse. Angered at this, Michael decided to get rid of Mathews. He invited an unsuspecting Mathews for a party and took him to the room at Sun Lodge where they began consuming toddy.

The accused person brought two different toddy sachets--he laced one pack with a dose of powdered Nitrovit 10 mg and to make sure that it does go to Mathews had it marked with a ball-pen. Mathews soon collapsed after consuming it. The job completed, Michael emptied all possible identifications, locked the room from outside and coolly walked out. Michael has been remanded to judicial custody.

(The case was investigated by the Market Police Inspector, B. Karunakar Reddy, with the assistance of the Sub-Inspector, M.A. Rahman).

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