The Vishakhapatanam railway police have taken into custody two Bangladeshi nationals who are suspected to have brutally murdered an elderly couple in Kerala’s Alappuzha district.
On Tuesday morning, 72-year-old AP Cherian and 70-year-old Elikutty Cherian were found dead in their house by next door neighbours. On the same evening, the Venmony police issued a lookout notice for Labalu and Jewel, Bangladeshi nationals who were working in Kerala as migrant labourers.
“On Tuesday night the two suspects were on board the Coromandel express and attempting to flee to Kolkata (and probably back to Bangladesh). The Vizag Railway Police identified them and took them into custody,” Chengannur DYSP Aneesh V Korah told TNM.
The two suspects will be brought back to Alappuzha at 2 pm on Wednesday, after completing certain formalities in Vishakapatnam, he confirmed.
Both the suspects, are believed to have been introduced to the elderly couple by a local contractor in Venmony. They were hired to clean the couple’s house and pluck coconuts from the backyard of the house. According to local ward member Anjitha Mohan’s statement to TOI, the workers had visited the Cherian household on Friday and Saturday.
On Tuesday morning, the neighbours decided to check up on the couple as a bottle of milk which had been left on their doorstep on Monday evening remained untouched. The lights too were not switched on in the night.
On entering the house through the backdoor which was left open, the neighbours found the elderly woman dead on the kitchen floor. She seemed to have received fatal blows to her face with a spade. A part of the spade was also lying next to the body.
Cherian’s body was found in the outhouse and the 72-year-old is suspected to have been attacked using an iron rod.
Although police believe theft to be the motive behind the murders, they are waiting on the couple’s children, who are both settled in the middle-east, to identify if any items had been lost or stolen. One of the cupboards in the house also looked like it was forced open.
The Alappuzha police have registered a case under sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery) of the Indian Penal Code.
The special investigation team probing the case said that all those found to have been involved in the case would be questioned. They also confirmed that the two Bangladeshi suspects were found to be illegal immigrants who crossed the border to find work in India. The local contractors who helped the men will also face legal action, as police insist that illegal immigrants are to be reported and then deported to their home countries instead of being hired.