The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of a dental student and the suicide of her alleged murderer at Nellikuzhi near Kothamangalam town has returned after a five-day exhaustive evidence collection trip in North India.
The team had taken Adithyan, friend and business partner of the prime accused Rakhil, to Patna and Munger in Bihar and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Adithyan has been accused of accompanying Rakhil to Bihar to buy the pistol with which the alleged crime was committed.
Adithyan has reportedly claimed that Rakhil had misled him into believing that the trip was to buy materials for interior decoration and came to know about the real motive only after reaching there. Rakhil had allegedly introduced him to Maneesh Kumar, a taxi driver and the alleged intermediary for buying the pistol.
The three stayed in three different hotels in as many days. Employees at the hotels identified Adithyan. The team also collected evidence from the house of Sonu Kumar who handed over the pistol to Rakhil, who then reportedly underwent training in using the firearm in the forest behind the former’s house.
Evidence was also collected from the place where the firearm was exchanged and the ATM from where the money was withdrawn. Adithyan and Rakhil went their separate ways at Varanasi and the latter returned alone.
The 24-year-old girl from Kannur, a house surgeon at a dental college at Nellikuzhi, was shot dead on July 29 allegedly by Rakhil at a house near the campus where she was staying as paying guest.
They were reportedly known to each other after having met on Instagram about a year ago. It was learnt that the accused probably followed the victim and had been moving around the locality for nearly a month before the incident.
