Thiruvananthapuram: A police man accused of killing his female colleague on Monday said it was a ‘love affair gone awry’ that led to the murder.
Civil police officer Soumya Pushpakaran, 34, was brutally murdered on Saturday by N.A. Ajaz. The accused befriended Pushpakaran when he was an instructor during her police training days.
Pushpakaran’s mother and the eldest of the victim’s three children told police that she had been facing threats from Ajaz.
Quoting Pushpakaran’s family members, local media reported that Ajaz had once lent her Rs150,000 (Dh7,872) and that when she returned it, he immediately transferred the amount back to her account. The accused had been pressuring her to marry him.
According to reports, Ajaz waited in a car near Pushpakaran’s home, and when she came out on a scooter he followed her in the car and knocked her down. When she tried to flee, he followed her and hacked her with a machete before dousing her in kerosene and setting her on fire.
Pushpakaran died on the spot, while Ajaz who suffered burns in the scuffle, has been admitted to the Alappuzha Medical College hospital.
Pushpakaran is survived by her husband Sajiv, who lives in Libya, and their two sons aged 12 and nine, and a daughter aged three.
Local political leaders have been facilitating Sajiv’s journey from Libya to Kerala, following his wife’s murder.