Kochi: Sanu Mohan, who was detained from Karwar in Karnataka on Sunday, reportedly confessed to the police that he had thrown his daughter Vaiga into the River Muttar.
Mohan reportedly said he could not implement his plan to commit suicide after tossing Vaiga into the river. Police, however, found contradictions in his statement, and would interrogate him for further details.
Vaiga’s body was found in the River Muttar on March 22, a day after she had gone missing with her father Mohan. Police said the girl was aged 13.
The preliminary post-mortem examination reported drowning as the cause of the girl’s death. No injuries or signs of assault were found. A forensic visceral examination later found alcohol content in the girl’s body.
He was brought to Kerala Sunday night and was questioned by the Kerala Police at an undisclosed location. Later, he was taken to the Trhrikkakkara Police Station.
Kochi City Police Commissioner H Nagaraju will meet media at 11:30am on Monday regarding the case.
The detention of Mohan from Uttara Kannada district is expected to unravel the mystery surrounding Vaiga’s death and the man’s disappearance. Though he is not a suspect in any case now, police will add more sections to the case registered in connection with Vaiga’s death. Mohan is likely to be arrested on Monday.
The breakthrough
The breakthrough in the case came when CCTV visuals showed Mohan at Kollur in Karnataka’s Udupi district. It was also established that he had stayed in a Kollur lodge from April 10 to till Friday morning.
Currently, only a man-missing case, saying Mohan had been missing, was registered. He was detained from Karwar beach en route to Goa, and was brought to the Thrikkakara police station around 4:15am on Monday.
Police said Mohan had left Kerala by road early on March 22. CCTV cameras installed along the National Highway and the State border had captured the images of the man’s car crossing over to Tamil Nadu through Walayar. Investigators will confiscate the car sold in Coimbatore.
The forensic report has now made the police suspect that Vaiga was forced to consume alcohol. Security personnel at Sree Gokulam Harmonia at Kangarappady, Kakkanad, where Mohan and family resided, had earlier reported seeing the man carrying the girl, wrapped in a blanket, to his car around 9:30pm on March 21.
Witnesses also recalled seeing him arriving at his flat a little past 9pm the same day. Investigators are now seeking information from Mohan on the incidents that had happened in the flat between 9pm and 9:30 pm. The CCTV cams at the flat were dysfunctional.
It is not clear whether someone else was present in the flat on that fateful night. A security staff had reported two men visiting the flat when Mohan was away.
The flat did not show any signs of a scuffle though bloodstains were found on its floor. The stains have been forwarded for a forensic test.
Mohan had dropped his wife off at a relative’s house at Ambalappuzha in Alappuzha district on March 21, before leaving for another kin’s residence. It is not known why he took Vaiga with him, and reached Kakkanad.
Mohan was almost in hiding at the flat for five years, according to the statements of his relatives and other residents.
The man told his relatives that he had fixed deposits of Rs 40 lakh and another Rs 4 lakh in savings accounts. Police have found that his accounts did not have such amounts.
Information has it that Mohan had financial dealings in Pune, Chennai and Coimbatore. It is also known that he has been facing a police case in Pune.
The mystery trail
March 21, morning: Sanu Mohan, wife and daughter Vaiga leave their flat at Kangarappady, Kakkanad. The man drops his wife off at her relative’s place at Ambalappuzha in Alappuzha.
7pm: Mohan and Vaiga leave the relatives place, saying they would return after visiting another kin.
9:10pm: Vaiga and Mohan reach their flat at Kangarappady.
9:30pm: He leaves the flat with his daughter.
9:45pm: Mohan makes a courtesy call to his father-in-law.
12 midnight: Mohan and Vaiga fail to reach the relative’s house. The relatives of his wife launch a search and learn that they had not reached the kin’s residence. They search the Kanagarappady flat in vain.
March 22, 8:30am: Relatives approach the Thrikkaraka police, saying both Mohan and Vaiga were missing. The girl’s body was found in the River Muttar at Kakkanad around noon. Police search for Mohan, based on a suspicion that he, too, had drowned.
March 25: Police start suspecting Mohan. They receive information that the man had financial dealings in Pune, and he was facing charges there.
March 26: CCTV visuals show Mohan’s car proceeding to and reaching Coimbatore. However, it was not clear whether he was in the vehicle.
April 10: Mohan checks into a lodge at Kollur.
April 16, 8:45am: Mohan leaves the lodge without settling the bills.
9:30am: He boards a bus plying the Kundapura-Udupi route, and alights at a forested area. He later takes another bus to Udupi.
April 16-17: He travels to Karwar from Udupi.
April 18: Police detain Mohan at Karwar.
April 19: Mohan confesses to throwing Vaiga into the River Muttar.