The gut feeling of a senior Kochi city police officer about a woman missing complaint received at the Kadavanthra police station led to the shocking revelation of the suspected twin human sacrifices at Elanthoor in Pathanamthitta.
The Kadavanthra police had registered a case on the missing of lottery vendor Padmam from Elamkulam on September 27. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, C.H. Nagaraju, District Police Chief (Kochi City), said the investigative acumen and experience of S. Sasidharan, Deputy Commissioner (Law and Order), Kochi City, proved crucial in cracking the case.
“As soon the case was registered, he felt that there was something fishy. He constituted a special team and convened meetings. His leadership was crucial in detecting the truth,” he said.
Mr. Sasidharan said his hunch proved right in many cases. He added that Shafi, the key accused, was a habitual offender and hence a tough nut to crack.
“He put up stiff resistance and revealed nothing. We had to employ scientific investigation and other techniques to eventually break him. The herculean task of rummaging through CCTV images between Kadavanthra and Thiruvalla that returned a blurred image of Padmam entering a vehicle with him proved crucial,” he said.
A team initially formed to probe the case was further expanded drawing officers from Kadavanthra, North, Elamakkara, Maradu and Cyber stations. They followed the leads unrestrained by jurisdictional issues and grilled the accused round-the-clock.
The team comprised Central Assistant Commissioner C. Jayakumar, Kadavanthra Sub Inspector C. Anilkumar and Assistant Sub Inspector K.C. Anand, Elamakkara Sub Inspector Aein Babu, Maradu Sub Inspector C.M. Josy, senior civil police officers K.P. Anilkumar, K. Sumesh Kumar, T.R. Ratheesh, A.T. Ragesh, N.V. Dileep Kumar, Sholin Das, P.G. Unnikrishnan, Aneesh, Rahul, and Vineeth, and civil police officers Anilkumar and Akhilesh.
