Kerala: Daughter-in-law plotted couple's murder

Palakkad: The accused Chopatti Sadanadan, 53, of Paravur, who murdered the elderly couple    at Tholanur village in Palakkad on Tuesday night,  has confessed that he committed the crime on the instigation by  Sheeja, 36, their daughter-in-law.  She allegedly had an illicit relationship with him and she wanted to get rid of her in-laws. Her husband, an  Army man posted in Srinagar,   was expected to come home on leave on September 16, the police said. The  couple, Swaminathan, 75, an ex-army man,  and his wife Premakumari, 68, were stabbed to death by the accused. He also used a hammer to smash  their head.

Both the weapons were recovered from near the crime scene.  The accused was  sent to judicial custody by the First Class Magistrate here on Thursday. Sheeja had  facilitated his  entry into the house on  Tuesday night to murder the couple, investigation officer    A.M. Siddique,  Kuzhalmannam    CI,  said. To mislead the cops, Sadanandan tied up   Sheeja’s  arms and legs and gagged her.   Sadanandan is a dynamite operator in a quarry and resides  at a rented house at Thenur. Sheeja  was taken into custody by Kottai police on Thursday after she was discharged from the hospital.  Her arrest would be recorded on Friday morning.

Sheeja was staying at her house at  Thenur with her 17-year-old son. Some local residents  told the cops about her affair  with Sadanandan. Sheeja  told the cops in her statement that the couple had opposed their son’s marriage to her  and nagged her all the time. She never wanted to stay with her in-laws at their house and had offered Sadanandan 10 cents of land, an autorickshaw and the manager post of the four -acre farm of her in-laws for killing the duo.  Sheeja had come to stay with her in-laws after there was a murder attempt on Swaminathan on the night of August 31 by Sadanandan.    He had thrown at him a  dry twig connected to the KSEB meter through a live wire  while he was sitting inside the house in a bid to  electrocute him that night . Local SI C.V. Ravindran said that the couple had not told  him about  Sheeja’s relationship with the culprit at that time. “All other angles, except this, were inquired into”  the SI told DC.