Thiruvananthapuram: The police trapped ‘Ottakam’ Rajesh, the second accused in the Pothencode Sudheesh murder case, by carrying out a thorough tracking of his phone calls. Sudheesh’s murder had sent shock waves across Kerala by the manner in which the assailants had chopped off the victim’s leg and threw it on the road after the killing.
The case also became an emotional issue for the Kerala Police after a policeman drowned in the lake at Varkala when a boat carrying a police team that went in search of Rajesh at an islet capsized. Moreover, even though all the other 10 assailants involved in the Sudheesh murder case were arrested within days, Rajesh eluded the police net.
First call from Palani
After the death of the official in the Varkala lake, the police expanded their search for Rajesh by including over 50 shadow police officers in the team of the Rural police who were investigating the case. The team began monitoring the phone numbers of people close to Rajesh and soon noticed a call to one of these numbers from Tamil Nadu. The call originated from Palani and Rajesh sought some money from his acquaintance. However, Rajesh’s contact immediately disconnected the call.
The shadow police team immediately travelled to Palani and found that Rajesh had made the call with the phone of a resident of that pilgrimage town. With the help of the Palani native, the Kerala Police identified the places Rajesh had visited in the town and checked CCTV visuals from those areas.
The police noted that Rajesh had gone to the bus stand from where long-distance services to Kerala operated and with the assistance of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) learnt the schedule of the buses to Kerala. A photo of Rajesh and his details were also passed on to the drivers and conductors.
Nabbed from Kollam
Soon, Rajesh’s acquaintance received another call from Tamil Nadu. It came from the premises of the Coimbatore bus stand. The police team traced the owner of the mobile used to make this call too and the man told the police that a stranger had requested his phone to make a call to his native place.
Subsequently, Rajesh made one more call from Ernakulam bus stand on another person’s phone and a police team from Pothencode rushed to the city and inspected the buses from there.
Within hours, the next call was tracked from Kollam and a police team searched the bus stand there. Rajesh, who was waiting for a bus to Thiruvananthapuram, was nabbed.
Revenge killing
According to the police, Sudheesh was killed in revenge for carrying out an attack on the parents of Sudheesh Unni, the first accused in the case. Rajesh is a close friend of Sudheesh Unni, said the police.
Officers also said that Rajesh, who is tall, earned the alias of ‘Ottakam’, the Malayalam word for camel, considering his height.
Incidentally, the police later learnt during the questioning of Rajesh that he was present at the scene of the crime when the first and third accused were taken there for evidence collection after their arrest. Rajesh had reportedly told the first and third accused to surrender before the police before fleeing to Tamil Nadu and later decided to return to Kerala as he was running short of money.
A history-sheeter
The police also said as many as 28 cases were registered against Rajesh. While he is the fourth accused in a murder that took place in 2004, he was charged in a case of stabbing a man to death in Mangalapuram in 2014 and chopping off a person’s hand the same year. He was booked under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act (KAAPA) and jailed in 2018 and 2019. After release, Rajesh was active in contract crimes, commonly referred to as ‘quotation’ jobs, and peddling of drugs.
