Eleven days after a Palode-based businessman was called out of his home late in the night and his body found in a pool of blood a few hundred metres from his home, the Thiruvananthapuram Rural Police have arrested three persons, including a woman in connection with the murder.
K. Shefeen Ahamed, Superintendent of Police (Thiruvananthapuram Rural), told the media here on Friday that the accused – Shajahan, alias ‘Irachi’ Shaji, 39, of Manacaud; Seema Wilfred, 36, a native of Anadu residing in Kamaleswaram; and Mohammed Subair, 34, of Beemapally – were arrested on Thursday.
Indications were that Shajahan killed the businessman, Mohanan Nair of Ilavattom near Palode, at around 10 p.m. on September 27, with Seema’s knowledge and Subair’s help.
Investigations
Investigations after Nair’s body was found at around 10.30 p.m. around 150 metres from his home, had revealed that Nair knew Seema through her former husband, Harikumar, a relative of Nair and who is currently in jail in connection with an assault case.
Nair and Seema were allegedly quite close till the relation soured recently, and Seema had allegedly got closer to Shajahan, who also knew Harikumar after meeting him in jail.
Shajahan had helped her move away from Nair’s neighbourhood to a house he arranged for her in Kamaleswaram.
Shajahan, in between, had got acquainted with Nair, and apparently, the attempts of Nair to reconcile with Seema did not go down well with him.
Mr. Ahamed said Seema had called Nair on the day of murder, telling him that she wanted to meet him and that Shajahan would pick him up from his home at 10 p.m.
Nair, after Shajahan reached his home, had told his family that he was going to the Palode police station for an urgent matter, after which he got on to an auto-rickshaw driven by Subair.
Meat cleaver
It was in this vehicle that Shajahan, who was carrying a meat cleaver, allegedly stabbed and killed him.
Subair too was armed as per Shajahan’s instructions, Mr. Ahamed said.
After murder
The duo, after the murder, had fled from the capital along with Seema.
While Subair was later nabbed from Malappuram, Shajahan and Seema, after hiding in Tuticorin, Koodamkulam and other areas in Tamil Nadu, had reached Karamana here earlier this week, from where they were nabbed on Thursday.
