Prime accused in Amboori murder case arrested

Thiruvananthapuram: Akhil R Nair, the prime accused in the alleged murder of 30-year-old Rakhimol of Puthankada near Poovar, has told the police that despite being in a relationship with her for six years he decided to kill her because of the severe mental stress she had been giving him over the issue of marriage. Akhil had surrendered before the police on Saturday night and his arrest was recorded on Sunday evening.
During the interrogation, Akhil admitted the crime he committed, but, refuted the allegations of having married Rakhimol at a temple in Ernakulam. He said that Rakhimol forced him to tie a black thread around her neck outside Ernakulam railway station when he visited her in February this year. When Rakhimol learned about his engagement with another woman, she threatened him that she would not let him marry someone else.
“Akhil returned home on leave a month before the murder was committed. It was after he arrived here, he conspired with his elder brother Rahul and friend Adarsh and decided to murder Rakhimol,” said Poovar station house officer inspector B Rajeev, who is the investigation officer in the case.
As per the plan, the accused dug a pit in the backyard of his under-construction house at Vazhichal near Amboori. On June 21, as Rakhimol left from home to her workplace in Ernakulam, the accused picked her up from Neyyatinkara under the pretext of showing her his new house.
The other two accused were waiting for them there. Once the car entered the house compound, Rahul entered the car and strangulated her using his hands till she fell unconscious. After that, both brothers tied a plastic rope around her neck and pulled it from either sides to ensure her death. Then, they took out the body, stripped away all her clothes and buried her in the pit.
They also sprinkled huge amounts of salt, which they had purchased earlier, on the body to accelerate the decaying process. The clothes were put on fire to destroy evidence.
“An act by the accused to mislead any investigation into her disappearance backfired and led us to them,” the inspector said.
The accused took out SIM card from Rakhimol’s phone and inserted it in another phone to send messages to Akhil’s phone saying that she was running away to Chennai as he refused to marry her. They did this because her phone was password-protected. The police traced the IMEI number of the phone into which they inserted the sim card and found out that it was purchased by Rahul and Adarsh from a shop at Kattakkada. As Rahul was not at home then, the police took Adarsh into custody and he revealed the facts about murder to the cops.
Rahul, whose arrest was recorded on Saturday, was produced before the court on Sunday following which he was remanded in judicial custody. The police will be taking Akhil to the crime scene for evidence collection on Monday. Only after that will he be produced before the court.