Nobody had seen the members of the family since Sunday.
Bodies of four members of a family were found buried in a pit behind their house near Thodupuzha in Kerala’s Idukki district on Wednesday. Police have identified the victims as Kanat Krishnan (52), his wife Sulekha (50), their daughter Arsha (21), and son Arjun (18).
Idukki district Superintendent of Police K B Venugopal said that multiple injuries were found on all bodies and that nobody had seen the members of the family since Sunday. “We are assuming it is a murder and have started investigation. The bodies have been sent for postmortem and police are yet to make any breakthrough in the probe,” he said.
Krishnan’s brother Yanjeswaran said that the family was not meeting relatives for a while. “I had heard from others that Krishnan used to practice black magic,’’ Yanjeswaran said.
Panchayat member Jaimma Joseph said Krishnan, a small-scale farmer, kept to himself most of the time. “He used to collect milk from a neighbour. As he did not show up to collect milk on Monday and Tuesday, the neighbour alerted people, including his relatives. On Wednesday, we all went to the house… There were blood stains on the door and the walls. During inspection of the courtyard, police examined a newly-dug pit, leading to recovery of bodies,’’ Krishnan said.