Kochi: Rakhil, who killed house surgeon P V Manasa before killing himself at Nellikuzhi in Kothamangalam late last month, had purchased the pistol used for the crime on the pretext of killing wild animals, the accused arrested from Bihar for selling the weapon told the police.
Sonukumar and Manish Kumar Verma, hailing from Munger district in Bihar, now remanded in judicial custody in Kerala, told the Ernakulam Rural Police that they did not know that Rakhil would use the pistol for killing human beings.
Since he asked us to supply a pistol to be used for killing animals like wild boars, we gave him the best one which had the capacity to fire 13 rounds, the accused said.
Police had tough time in Bihar
The arrest of the two accused was effected by the Kerala Police in Bihar after going through an ordeal.
While bringing them back from their remote village Parsanto, their accomplices coming in four bikes intercepted the vehicle of the Kerala Police team in the jungle. The Kerala police were travelling without arms. Finally, the Bihar police had to fire three rounds of bullets to disperse them.
When the accused were taken to the police station, there was again resistance from many gangsters against taking them in police custody. Some villagers came up for conciliation for the release of the accused.
The accused took the position that they didn't know about the killing of Manasa. It seemed that the accused never expected that the Kerala Police would come all the way from a distance of 3,100 km and arrest them, that too by travelling through dense forest.
What turned tide in favour of the Kerala Police was the decision of the the Rural SP to include Saju, a home guard from Unnukkal police station in Kothamangalam, in the probe team sent to Bihar.
Saju had earlier worked with the Central forces. He knew many Hindi dialects. Saju gave valuable tips to police on how to reach out to remote areas of Bihar.
The police reached the interior village of Sonukumar by following the mobile phone tower location. But driver Manish, who is also a second-hand car dealer, could not be traced because he had kept his phone switched off for charging purposes.
Manish was trapped after Sonukumar called him as per police plan, asking him to urgently come for a car deal.
Sonukumar, a popular figure in village
Sonukumar, who runs a stationery shop in his village, is mostly into the business of online money transfer. In the meantime, he does the job of arms sales.
He used to charge commission for delivering money sent by labourers working in other States via online to their respective homes at the village. For this reason, he was very popular among villagers. This made the villagers oppose the police act of taking him into custody.
Court remands two
The Kothamangalam First-Class Judicial Magistrate Court remanded both Sonukumar and Maneesh to judicial custody on Monday.
Before being sent to Muvattupzuha Sub Jail, they were taken to the Covid Monitoring Centre at Kakkanad for observation.
The police will now move application for getting them in custody for interrogation.
It was on Sunday night that they were taken to Kothamangalam. They were produced before the court after taking their finger prints and doing all other formalities like medical check-up.
They were charged under various sections of law for keeping unlicensed pistol without having seal and indulging in illegal sale of pistol.
