Police trace fugitive Dy.SP to Thriparappu

But the officer could not be arrested as he escapes from the scene with an associate

Police use water canons to disperse the VSDP workers who marched towards the DGP office seeking the arrest of DYSP Harikumar in the Sanalkumar murder case in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday.

The State police on Sunday said they had tracked former Neyyatinkara Dy.SP B. Harikumar to a tourist home at Thriparappu in Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu. However, the wanted officer had decamped with a long-term associate of his before the plainclothes team could secure his custody.

Harikumar is high on the wanted list of the police after he emerged as a prime suspect in the road-rage related murder of Sanal Kumar, a resident of Neyyatinkara, on Tuesday.

Officers said Harikumar and his long-term associate, Binu, a money lender, had stayed at the lodge and persuaded the manager to get them two mobile phone connections in different addresses before they escaped.

The suspects had switched off their phone after the murder and were believed to have absconded together in a private car. The police have detained the lodge manager for further questioning. They might book him on the charge of abetting the escape of persons wanted by the law.

Nexus with mafia

The State police have tasked S. Sreejith, IG, Crime Branch, to lead the investigation against Harikumar. The police intelligence was conducting an informal inquiry into the officer’s finances and also his alleged nexus with a section of illegal river sand-mining mafia at Neyyatinkara sub-division.

A close relative of Harikumar called on the Crime Branch police and stated that the officer had acted in self-defence. He told the Crime Branch investigators that Sanal Kumar, working on behalf of particular vested interests inimical to the officer, had deliberately created a parking-related altercation to provoke Harikumar. Officers said they were not taking the person’s statement at face value.

Sanal’s widow Viji expressed her reservations about the ongoing investigation. She told journalists that she had faith in the government but little trust in local officers. Ms Viji is poised to move the court for a CBI inquiry into her husband’s death. She said she would also settle for a court-monitored probe of the crime.

Local people continued to demonstrate for Harikumar’s arrest at Neyyatinkara for the seventh consecutive day on Sunday. The police had to use water cannon to disperse a Vaikunta Swamy Dharma Paripalana Yogam protest march that turned violent.

Hefty shove

The police case against Harikumar was that the officer had assaulted Sanal following a parking-related altercation. In the melee, Harikumar allegedly gave Sanal a hefty shove, which caused him to fall in front of a speeding car.