Special team to probe Idukki murders

IDUKKI: A special probe team has been formed to investigate the murder of four members of a family at Vannapuram, police said on Thursday.
Investigators, on Thursday, collected evidence from the slain family’s residence, a day after the bodies of Mundanmudy native Kanat Krishnan (51), wife Susheela (47), daughter Arsha (21) and son Arjun (17) were found buried in the backyard of their house.
A knife, hammer and chopper—suspected weapons used in the crime—were found near the pit. “A postmortem examination suggested brutal murder. We will check the phone call list of the family for the last one year,” Thodupuzha DSP K P Jose said.
Over 17 hacking wounds were found on the head of the deceased Arjun. The faces and heads of the bodies bore several wounds. They were also hit with the hammer, police said. “We collected evidence from Thodupuzha BEd centre where Arsha studied. Her friends said she was active on WhatsApp till 10.53pm. It suggested that the murder took place after 11pm,” an officer said.
“As per the primary investigation, the murders took place on Sunday night. The neighbours reported that the family had been missing since Monday. The police were also questioning the neighbours and relatives,” the officer said.
The police were also considering theft as the motive. The family members normally wore gold ornaments, but no jewellery or money were found in the house, said police.
“We have information that Krishnan was engaged in witchcraft,” the officer said.
The bodies were cremated near the family’s home on Thursday.