Aluva: Four days after a woman’s body was fished out of Periyar River close to UC College near here, efforts are still on to establish the identity of victim. However, the police have claimed that they have got hold of some clues that could lead them to the perpetrators of the crime.
The body, wrapped in a bedsheet, was spotted floating in the river on Tuesday evening, but it was recovered only on Wednesday morning due to bad light.
The police team is actively pursuing the case in an effort to achieve a breakthrough, officials said.
There are indications that the actual crime was committed at another location, presumably in the Kakkanad area, and the body was dumped in the water from the newly constructed Mangalapuzha bridge connecting Desom and Aluva town.
The medium-built woman, found to be 154-cm tall, could be aged between 25 and 40 years, the police said.
The boulder which was found tied to the body was presumably picked up by the murderer/s from a construction site along the route.
Investigations revealed that a man, accompanied by a woman, had purchased a bedsheet from a textile shop at the HMT junction in Kalamassery on the night of February 7.
The police examined footage generated from the surveillance cameras installed at private buildings and commercial establishments in the area to trace down the vehicle in which they travelled, but the exercise did not reveal any clue about the identity of the vehicle as most of the CCTV cameras were damaged in the recent floods.
According to investigating officers, the evidence collected so far showed that the criminals had pre-planned to dispose of the body in the river. Data of hundreds of missing women from across the state over the past one year has already been scanned, but none of the records matched the external features of the deceased person, they said.
Rackets engaged in trafficking women from other states to brothels in the area are also under the police scanner.
Going by the clothes on the body, a house dress, the presumptive thought is that the killing was unintentional. The police suspect that the murderer/s removed both earrings from the body with an intention to leave no evidence regarding the identity of the victim.
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