On July 2, 19-year-old MV Arjun from Kochi went missing. A week later, he was found murdered and dumped in a marshy land near Nettoor in Kochi. The reason has turned out to be a freak enmity over the death of Arjun’s friend in an accident a year ago.
Last year Arjun, a resident of Kochi’s Panangad suburb, met with a motorcycle accident while riding with his friend Abin Judeson. Abin, who was riding the bike, lost his life in the accident while Arjun incurred serious injuries.
According to reports, Abin’s brother is one of the four persons Panangad police has now nabbed in connection with Arjun’s murder. And it now seems, Arjun was allegedly murdered as revenge for Abin's death.
In the wake of these incidents, Arjun’s father Vidhyan filed a habeas corpus petition on Monday at the Kerala High Court seeking to find his son. This was filed a day before Arjun’s body was discovered by the police. The petition stated that enmity over Abin’s death was the reason behind the abduction of Arjun.
As per the statement, since last year’s accident, Abin’s “younger brother had developed an impression that the accident and his brother’s death happened because of Arjun”. Abin’s family members also believed this and had accused Arjun several times for being the reason for the accident as the duo was riding to Valparai, a tourist spot, on his bike.
Arjun went missing from 10 pm on July 2. As per his father’s statement, Abin’s younger brother Rony called Arjun that night. Later Arjun was picked up from his house by another friend in a bicycle. “After reaching the Kumbalam-Nettoor new bridge, the duo was directed to the Kumbalam-Nettoor railway bridge, which is located in an isolated place. About five people were present there. The friend who had taken Arjun on the bicycle was directed by the group to leave. Even though he said he would leave only with Arjun, they persuaded him to go. It was from this time that Arjun went missing,” the petition states.
Police officials also confirmed to TNM that enmity over Abin’s death was the reason for the murder. Apart from Rony (23), three other youth – Ajith Kumar (22), Ananthu (21) and Nibin (20) – have been arrested by the police on Thursday. The arrests were made under Section 302 (Punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The accused will be presented in the court soon.
Meanwhile, Vidhyan’s petition also stated that though a complaint was filed in the Panangad police station on the next day (July 3) itself, police officials failed to act on it. It is alleged that the SHO of the police station said that he had some “serious matters to be investigated” and asked Arjun’s father to conduct his own investigation to find his son. The police official also allegedly said that arrangements would be made to rescue Arjun if they found where he was.
It was following this that Vidhyan filed a habeas corpus in the High Court.