Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 8 2024-
The Kerala Police team on Thursday found that the fatal road accident of an elderly person was a cleverly planned murder, hatched by a woman official working at a private financial institution in Kollam, to steal his money
Papachan, who was living alone after he retired from the BSNL at Kollam, died after being knocked down by a car when he was on a cycle on May 23.
His entire savings including a huge sum which he received as retirement benefits were deposited with a leading private bank at Kollam. Papachan had good relations with the bank manager Saritha and the other staff members and they knew this entire family background.
After some time and after winning the confidence of Papachan, Saritha, along with another staffer Anoop, hired local goon Ani, who has a few criminal cases registered against him, to eliminate Papachan, as per police.
As the conspirators knew Papachan often rides a bicycle, Ani, in his car, knocked down the aged man, who died on the spot.
Then the police, after a preliminary probe, closed the case as a road accident.
However, when Papachan’s daughter arrived at the bank and realised a sizeable sum of his savings had been withdrawn, she asked his friends and family members about the withdrawal and failing to get an answer, she approached the Kollam police and filed a complaint.
The police reached the private bank after a series of probes and found out something was fishy. As Saritha was not cooperating with the probe, the police decided to look into the call details and found out that there were two different mobile numbers that Saritha and Ani were communicating on. They then checked the bank account of Ani and found money transactions on and around the day that Papachan was knocked down by Ani in his car.
As Saritha broke down, police on Thursday arrested her, Anoop, Ani and two of his associates Ali and Maheen. On interrogation of the accused, the police found that Saritha had entrusted the job of eliminating Papachan to Ani for a sum of Rs 2.40 lakhs. All five are in the custody of the police and will be produced before a local court. (Agency)
