Thiruvananthapuram: A team of Kerala police travelled as far as 2,500km from Kottayam district to Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh state to arrest Narendar, the suspect in the murder of three members of a family who were running a laundry unit in Kottayam on May 17.
In the brutal murder, the suspect not only used an axe to murder the three — Lalason (71), his wife Prasannakumari and their son Praveen Lal (29) — but also electrocuted them and poured acid on their bodies. The apparent motive was to make away with the family’s valuables. Police recovered gold ornaments worn by the family members from Narendar’s house in Firozabad.
The most shocking of the finds were the earrings of Prasannakumari, that were chopped off with the earlobes. Police suspect Narendar has committed crimes of a similar nature before, and he may have worked in different parts of Kerala, including Kollam.
Police had code-named the hunt for the suspect, ‘Operation High Speed’, and did manage to nab him within five days of the crime.
The crime has brought into focus the increasing incidence of Kerala families employing migrant labourers, mostly from states such as Odisha, West Bengal, Assam and Bihar. There are no firm numbers on the total number of migrants working in the state, but estimates vary between 1 million and two million.
Employers in Kerala insist on identity cards when they employ migrant workers, but the latest incident shows this is no confirmation of their real personal details. Narendar, for instance, had given his employers a fake identity card, and while on his trail, police also discovered he had obtained his mobile connection, also by giving a fake address.
Police also found six persons who had called him during recent days had also obtained their mobile connections using fake identity cards. Reports indicate some of the migrants may be arriving in Kerala with criminal intentions.
After reaching home in Firozabad, Narendar had gone out after leaving his bag with the valuables at home. Police got one of his friends to ask him to come home and when the suspect arrived home, they nabbed him. Narendar will be presented in a court in UP and brought to Kerala on Sunday.
In another incident involving migrant workers, the bodies of a woman from Assam and her infant son were found in a field near Perumbavur. The woman’s husband is missing and police suspect him to be behind the murders. A police team has proceeded to Assam on the investigation trail.
