Chengannur: The daughter of the Venmony couple who was allegedly murdered by migrant workers on Sunday believes that the murder was well planned by the accused.
"If the accused wanted to just commit robbery, they could have locked my parents up in a room. They were ailing, why were they killed," asks a sobbing Bindu, daughter of A P Cheriyan (75) and his wife Lillykutty (68).
Based in Sharjah, she used to video-call her parents every day. She had called on Sunday too. During their chat, her parents had told her that the workers had come on Sunday too.
“They could have planned their attack well in advance otherwise why come to work on a Sunday when they were told not to come? Without asking they climbed up coconut trees and plucked coconuts. They could have spotted the ornaments on Lilly who had got ready to go to the church," she says.
Bindu and her husband Reji Kuruvilla had reached Chengannur from Sharjah to perform the last rites of her parents. Her brother Bibu Cherian, wife Shiney and son Joseph too have arrived from Dubai. Bibu too could not hold back tears. He breaks down frequently in front of relatives and acquaintances. Though they are giving answers to the queries of the police, at times they lose control and start sobbing, while relatives have been unable to console them.
On Wednesday evening, district police chief K M Tomy, ASP B Krishnakumar and DySP Aneesh V Kora reached their home and took the statements of the children.
CCTV trail
According to sources, both the accused in the murders were caught by the CCTV camera in Chennai central railway station and near Chengannur railway station. The footages helped police track them fast.
The accused, identified as Mohamad Juwel Hossain (21) and Lublu Hassan (33), were caught from the Coromdandel Express on Tuesday night.
No mobile phone
The hunt was tough because the accused were not using mobile phones. One of the accused had used a mobile phone to make a call from Bangladesh to a friend in Kerala. He has never used the mobile phone since then.
The police believe that they could have used the mobile phones of co-passengers while on train and their friends when they were in Venmony to make calls. However, according to sources, three mobile phones were seized from the accused.
The relatives are yet to confirm if the mobile phones were that of Cherian or not. When granddaughter Sneha was shown a photo of the mobile phones on DySP Aneesh V Kora's mobile, she said they don't belong to her grandfather.
