Thrissur: The Kodungalloor Municipality has served a notice demanding that Anugraha Special School, where an autistic student was murdered by his caretaker, cease its operations.

The deceased, Sreenath (35), was found dead in his bedroom on Wednesday morning. The postmortem examination revealed severe injuries in his body, including broken ribs, among other signs of assault on his hands and legs.

Following the development, the Kodungalloor police on Thursday arrested the victim's caretaker, Mahesh, and remanded him to judicial custody. During questioning, the accused reportedly confessed to the crime, the police said.

The Kodungalloor police CI told Onmanorama that Mahesh had previously been accused in a robbery case and added that they were investigating the extent of the crime. "There is no evidence to indicate that he had assaulted any of the other inmates. However, we are probing the matter," he said.

The school, operated by a Kodungalloor native named Bobby, was operating in a rented building and claimed to have a municipal license. However, when the health committee of the Kodungalloor Municipality inspected the institute, they found that the institute had been operating without proper licenses and permits.

"We initially thought they had all the necessary licenses and permits. But latest inquiries have revealed otherwise," Honey Peethambaran, the Kodungalloor Municipal chairperson, told Onmanorama.

"The building owner was served a notice for the closure of the institute following recent developments in the case," Honey added. 

The institute had housed a total of 8 inmates, including the deceased. "6 of the remaining 7 inmates have vacated the facility. The remaining inmate is the owner's son," she told Onmanorama.

"The caretaker had begun working in the facility only 2 months ago. He was a Thiruvananthapuram native, so the owner was not aware of his background," she added.