Kothamangalam:The Crime Branch has said that it was the husband who had killed the housewife who was found murdered in broad daylight inside their house at Mathirapilly, near Kothamangalam, 11 years ago. The Crime Branch arrested the husband Shajimon (55) in the murder of Vilayal Kannadippara Shoji (34).
The accused was nabbed after 11 years in the highly controversial murder. The investigating team got some clues related to Shoji's murder when they were interrogating Shajimon in the case of trying to kill an autorickshaw driver by attacking him with a tile cutter.
Shajimon had cut his wife’s throat with a tile cutter to ensure death. It is learnt that the man, who was intimate with another woman, tried to steal the gold to give his paramour money.
Shoji was killed between 10.15 am and 11.30 am on August 8, 2012. Five sovereigns of gold ornaments on her body were missing. However, the ornaments in the almirah were not lost. The incident took place when two workers who were carrying out construction work on the upper floor of the house had gone out to have food. The dead body was found lying on a mat with deep cuts on the neck and bleeding in an unused room of their two-storey house.
The Crime Branch team arrested Shajimon from his house in Vilayal on Thursday morning.
Subsequently, he was brought to the Travellers’ Bungalow in Kothamangalam and interrogated. The Crime Branch team took Shajimon to the house and collected evidence in the afternoon. Following this, he was produced in court and remanded. It is learnt that the Crime Branch has received evidence that shows that Shajimon had reached the house just before Shoji was killed.
On the day of the incident, Shoji was in her own shop next to the house. Shoji, who used to run a medical shop, happened to arrive home suddenly. Shajimon, who had come home from the shop that he ran in Kothamangalam, was taking out the gold from the almirah. The Crime Branch has found that Shajimon had a dispute over the gold with Shoji who came to the room to investigate the noise, resulting in the murder. The statement of a neighbour who saw Shajimon leaving soon after arriving at his home, proved to be the crucial piece of evidence in the case.
The investigation is being led by Deputy Superintendent of Police YR Rustom. When Shajimon was brought out of the house after the collection of evidence, he told the media that he did not commit the crime.
Although the police had conducted investigations for months focusing on Shajimon and the construction workers who first saw the body, no evidence to help find the suspect was found in the murder case.
The relatives of the woman had approached the government demanding that the investigation should be handed over to the Crime Branch or the Central Bureau of Investigation, stating that the probe was unsatisfactory and was not in the right direction.
Even though the case was handed over to the Crime Branch after the investigation came to a dead-end, there was no significant progress. Meanwhile, Shajimon had approached the High Court alleging that the police were hounding him.
