The police have constituted a special team to probe the murder of a retired headmistress P.V. Janaki, 65, by an armed gang at her residence at Puliyanur, near Cheemeni, on Wednesday night.
The squad, headed by Neeleswaram Circle Inspector P. Unnikrishnan, will be supervised by Kanhangad Dy.SP K. Damodharan. The other squad members are Kanhangad Circle Inspector C.K. Sunil Kumar and Cheemeni Sub-Inspector K.N. Ramanan. The team reviewed the progress of the investigation in a meeting chaired by ADGP (North Zone) Mahipal Yadav on Friday.
A pond was drained to see if the sharp weapons used to inflict stab wounds on the woman and her critically injured husband K. Krishnan could be retrieved. Weeds were cleared in a paddy field where the tracker dog had rushed to at the initial stage of the investigation. Images received from the CCTV installed in nearby houses were checked to verify the vehicles that had passed by at the time of the incident, Mr. Ramanan said. The culprits had burgled her house around 9 p.m. and decamped with a gold chain, a ring, and ₹50,000 in cash.
