Minor injury exposes brother’s role in youth’s death

KOCHI: An officer’s alertness in noticing a minor injury on a body has helped the police solve a murder case, which would have otherwise been written off as unnatural death. Sreenath, 29, of Mattakuzhy near Puthencruz, was brought to a private medical college hospital in Kolenchery around 8pm on Tuesday.

His relatives said he had collapsed in his house. The hospital authorities declared Sreenath brought-dead and informed the police. But the police inquiry exposed the murder that resulted from a family feud, and his elder brother, Sreekanth, 33, was arrested.

Sreekanth had told the police that his brother collapsed in their house and breathed his last on the way to the hospital. However, during the inquest proceedings, the investigation officer noticed a bruise on Sreenath’s chest. Subsequently, a postmortem examination was performed. Meanwhile, Ernakulam Rural SP K Karthick constituted a special team for a detailed inquiry.

“The brothers were professionally qualified. Sreenath got into a verbal duel with his mother on Tuesday evening and roughed her up. Seeing this, Sreekanth stabbed him on his chest with a pair of small scissors. After Sreenath fell down, Sreekanth removed his bloodstained clothes and took him to the hospital in an ambulance.

The injury couldn’t be noticed easily as the accused had removed the blood from the minor bruise mark,” a police officer said. The postmortem revealed that the injury on the chest led to Sreenath’s death. Later, cops recovered the scissors used for the murder and Sreenath’s bloodstained clothes from their home.

A team led by DySP G Ajaynath and comprising Inspector T Dileesh, Sub Inspector Alias Paul, assistant sub inspectors Jinu P Joseph, Manoj Kumar and B Chandrabose, and senior civil police officers Dinil Damodaran and Gireesh made the arrest.