Probe to focus on Martin Joseph’s income source, luxurious lifestyle: Kochi Police

KOCHI: Kochi city police commissioner Nagaraju Chakilam said that a detailed probe has been launched into the financial sources and livelihood of Martin Joseph (27), who was arrested on Thursday night for restraining, torturing and sexually assaulting a woman in an apartment at Marine Drive in Kochi. The commissioner was addressing a press briefing on Friday morning.
City police on Friday also issued a public notice urging people to contact the city police if they have any financial or other complaints against the accused.Martin was presented in court and was remanded in judicial custody.
He said that focus would be given to find out the means of the accused’s luxurious lifestyle, involving premium flats and multiple vehicles. Police had seized two cars and a motorcycle from the accused.
The commissioner praised the cooperation of local residents at Mundoor and Thrissur City police in nabbing the accused from a very hostile terrain. He said that over 250 local residents, including civil defence volunteers, assisted the police in catching the accused.
The commissioner said that a special drive would be launched by coordinating with all the residents’ associations in the district to collect information on possible suspicious activities like domestic violence or domestic abuses and to find if there are any victims unknown to police, like in this case.
“Even in live-in relationships, violence can happen. We are getting reports of at least 10 domestic violence or rape cases on an average every month. In most cases, the victims are living with the accused, either in a marital relationship or live-in. We are going to give special focus to these cases. In this case, the victim was traumatised, harassed and threatened with dire consequences. What we saw was a very sadistic torture,” said Nagaraju.
Meanwhile, women’s commission chairperson MC Josephine congratulated the police team for catching the accused within 24 hours after the interference of the commission. She, however, said that laxity by the police in investigating atrocities against women would give out a wrong message to the public.
The police commissioner, however, rejected allegations that police sat on the petition for two months without doing anything and even let the accused flee from an apartment at Thrikkakara a day after the incident was reported.
The commissioner said that so much resources were not used but the police did everything to be done legally. “We were already behind the accused. We collected his location and did everything to block his passport. We also got the bail application rejected. The focus and efforts increased when it became sensational, that we will accept. But we cannot accept the claim that we didn’t do anything,” he said.
An assistant commissioner would inquire into the delay in alerting the senior officials about the grievous nature of the crime which was registered on April 8. He said that they were looking at a standard operating procedure to be followed in such cases so that such lapses aren’t repeated.