The Varkala police on Wednesday arrested a sub-contractor on charges of abetting the suicide of a contractor and his family in Varkala on Tuesday.
The accused has been identified as Ashok Kumar (60), hailing from Thittamangalam, near Vattiyoorkavu.
Sreekumar, a contractor who undertook infrastructure projects commissioned by the Military Engineer Services, his wife, and daughter were found charred to death at their home near Varkala during the early hours of Tuesday.
According to the police, Ashok Kumar, the accused, was a friend of Sreekumar to whom the deceased used to subcontract the work that he used to take up.
In 2014, Sreekumar had taken the contract for the Air Force quarters at Shanghumughom for an amount of ₹10 crore. He had transferred ₹2.5 crore to Ashok Kumar’s account and ₹50 lakh for documents security for starting the work. However Ashok Kumar had allegedly not started the work or returned the amount that was transferred to him.
Sreekumar had to face revenue recovery proceedings from banks following the mounting debts. Though he had demanded the accused to return the money, he had refused. At this point, he again borrowed a large sum from the bank with the hope of completing the work and escaping from the debt trap. However, with this plan too failing to take off, he decided to commit suicide with the entire family, say the police.
The police had recovered a suicide note from the house, in which it was mentioned that Ashok Kumar is responsible for pushing them to suicide. He was arrested after scrutinising the financial transactions between the two individuals over the past 10 years and also based on information gathered from the military engineering service officials.
He was arrested by a police team led by Varkala SHO G. Gopakumar and consisting of SI P. Ajith Kumar and Grade SI Sunil Kumar. The accused was produced at the Varkala court and remanded.