Shakunthala, 54, was murdered by T M Sajith, an inspector attached to the State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA), who committed suicide following the recovery of the body. Her body was found in a barrel.Kumbalam: A broken family and shattered relationships were contributory factors to the tragic death of Shakunthala, whose body was found stuffed in a plastic barrel in the backwaters of Kochi.
She was living with her husband Damodaran and two children at Udayamperoor on the Ernakulam-Vaikom road. Their relationship turned sour after Damodaran got jailed in a political murder case. Even after his release from jail, they did not live together under the same roof for long. In the meantime, their daughter fell in love with a neighbour and married him. After having two children, their relationship too fell apart. Ever since, Shakunthala had been living with her son Pramod at Mulanthuruthy.
A few years ago, Pramod committed suicide after an accident left him paralysed. Her daughter Aswathi, who had divorced the first spouse, married a man hailing from Amballur in Thrissur district, but that marriage too did not last long. After the death of Pramod, Shakunthala was living alone at the rented house in Mulanthuruthy. One day Aswathi came to visit her accompanied by Sajith, a native of Eroor, and introduced him to mother as her new husband. However, Sakunthala opposed to their affair after she came to know that Sajith had earlier been married to another woman.
Shakunthala met with an accident on September 2, 2016, and underwent an ankle fracture operation. While recuperating after the surgery, she had a bout of chickenpox, following which Sajith relocated Aswathi and children to avoid spreading the infection to them.
The police assume that Sajith decided to get rid of Shakunthala when she allegedly threatened to reveal his illicit affair to his wife. After killing her, he stuffed the body in a plastic barrel and filled it with concrete mix.
He sought help of five of his friends to dump it in the river after making them believe that the barrel contained bones and skulls of animals for making iridium. It was taken to Kumbalam on a mini-truck and was dumped in the backwaters near the toll plaza.
After the incident, Sajith left Eruveli and rented the same house at Kaniyamala near Kureekadu where Shakunthala had lived with Aswathi and her two children previously. According to neighbours, he used to come there regularly.
It was then a group of labourers engaged in dredging operations spotted the barrel floating on the backwaters. A police team visited the spot on January 8 and broke open the barrel after Manorama reported the incident.
Sajith was found dead the next day after the news about the recovery of skeletal remains of a human from the abandoned barrel broke. The autopsy report attributed the cause of death to cardiac arrest. However, the police assume that he might have committed suicide fearing arrest.
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