Kerala: Cops in Drishyam redoux

Kottayam: The similarities of the murder of a man at Thalayolaparambu in 2008 with that of the Malayalam film ‘Drishyam’ of 2013 may be incidental. The police are now digging up the ground floor of a building there with a JCB  to retrieve the remains of a man who was allegedly killed and buried there. Anish, 38, of Chettiyam Veedu, Vaikom TV Puram, has confessed to the police that he had murdered Kalayil Mathew, 44, following disputes over financial transactions.

The murder came to light after Anish’s father Vasu revealed to Mathew’s daughter Nicey that Anish had killed Mathew. Nicey recorded the phone conversation and filed a complaint with the police on December 4.  The Mallappally police had arrested Anish two months ago in connection with a fake note case and he was in remand. The Thalayolaparambu police questioned Anish based on Nicey’s complaint when he revealed that he had killed Mathew and buried him near the printing press owned by him at hospital junction. Now there is a two-storey building at the spot and  an interior design shop is functioning in it.

Vasu got the information about the murder from a letter sent to him  by a former jail mate of Anish,  which  was read out to him by another person since Vasu is illiterate. Vasu had personal enmity against his son as he considered him a spoilt child and, therefore, told Nicey about it, Vaikom Circle Inspector M.S. Niyas told DC. Mathew was a money-lender and he was missing from  the evening of November 25, 2008  when he went to pick his  children from the school.

The locals and the police believed that  Mathew  had gone into hiding due to financial problems. His car was found  abandoned  near Pallikavala at Thalayolaparambu. Anish strangled him with plastic rope after inviting him to his printing press, police sources said. According Mr S. Sivasudhan, former head of the department of forensic medicine of  government medical college hospital, Thiruvannathapuram,  the recovery of the bones  depends on the soil,  terrain and the depth in which the body was buried.