Kottayam: Kottayam youth Kevin Joseph was murdered at the behest of his fiancee's brother and father, the Kerala police said in the charge sheet that named 14 accused. The police have slapped murder charge on 12 men, including his fiancee's brother, Syanu Chacko.
Kevin was abducted from his house in Kottayam on May 27. The next day, his body was found in a canal at Thenmala in Kollam. The post-mortem examination found that the body had several bruises but none was fatal.
The charge sheet submitted by the police on Tuesday said that Kevin was killed for marrying Neenu. Both Neenu's father Chacko and brother have been accused of conspiring to kill the youth. Kevin's relatives had alleged that he was tortured and killed two days after he and Neenu filed a joint application for marriage registration at a sub-registrar office.
The brutal incident had send shock waves across the state with the opposition UDF and the BJP attacking the LDF government over it. The Congress-led UDF had alleged that 'laxity and lapse' on the part of the local police had resulted in the gruesome killing of 23-year-old Kevin. The government had formed a special investigation team to investigate the case.
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