Body found buried in a gunny bag

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a suspected case of murder, the Parassala police on Tuesday found the body of a 43-year-old man in a gunny bag buried near a coconut tree on the premises of his friend's house. Vinu, a daily wages worker, residing at Arayoor near Harvipuram near Parassala is the deceased. The police have launched a hunt for his friend Shaji.

Parassala police station house officer inspector K S Vijayan said that the murder is suspected to be the aftermath of a drunken brawl. It is suspected that Vinu and Shaji consumed alcohol in the latter's residence and fought over some issue, leading to the murder.

"We launched a probe after we received a complaint from Vinu's brother that he was missing since Saturday," said Inspector Vijayan. Police reached Shaji's residence around a kilometre away from Vinu's residence after learning that they had the habit of drinking liquor together there. Shaji's neighbours too said that they heard the sounds of a brawl from the house on Saturday night.

"The liquor bottles, glasses and food remains were still there in the house. There were blood stains on the floor. The body was recovered after police followed the blood trail," the Inspector said.

Vinu was a bachelor. Shaji was married and had been living in his wife's house near Pallichal and his house at Arayoor remained uninhabited, where he used to hold booze parties.