A special team of the Crime Branch CID probing the recent attack on Mathrubhumi reporter V.B. Unnithan is understood to have gathered evidence to establish the involvement of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy.SP) in the incident.
A case of attempt to murder has been registered. It is reliably learnt that the Dy.SP will be arrested in a day or two.
According to reliable sources, the Dy.SP has confessed to hatching the conspiracy along with Kochi-based businessman ‘Container' Suresh. A sum of Rs.35,000 had been handed over to a Kollam-based ‘quotation gang' led by ‘Happy' Rajesh for the operation.
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No evidence could be collected by the investigation team on the involvement of any other police officer in the conspiracy. On his surrender before a court in Thiruvalla on May 17, Santosh had said that another Dy.SP was also responsible for the incident. But his interrogators see this as a “ploy to weaken the case.”
Mr. Unnithan was attacked following a report in the daily on some police officers attending a booze party hosted by an abkari contractor at the government guest house here on October 12, 2009. Following the report, the officers who attended the party were suspended from service.
While mystery continued to shroud the attack, 14 days after the attack, Rajesh was found dead in an autorickshaw near the district hospital with bruises. Based on the autopsy report, the police had registered a murder case.
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The breakthrough came with the arrest of Anand, who confessed to being in the gang that attacked Mr. Unnithan. Anand is a member of another quotation gang Santosh had earlier approached for the job. Anand “freelanced” for Rajesh because of the cash offered.
On tips provided by Anand, two others, Mahesh and Rafeeq, were arrested. Santosh surrendered before the court a few days later.
The investigating team sees no direct link between the attack on Mr. Unnithan and the murder of Rajesh. “It appears to be [part of] a gang war.”
The case is being probed by the Kollam East police.