Nanthancode murder case: Cadell Jeansen Raja was underperformer

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Cadell Jeansen Raja,  who murdered four persons, including his parents  the other day,   was  an underperformer with very low social interaction. Some of his classmates in the ninth class in Christ Nagar School  here recalled that he was  shifted from the ICSE to their class in the state syllabus after six months- from division A to D.  He was occasionally beaten for not answering questions in the class. Some remember that he used to have super-expensive gadgets.

Psychiatrists, who have studied his family atmosphere and observed his mannerism, suspect him  to be a schizotypal schizoid who ended up being a schizophrenic. “In spite of having a normal IQ, Cadell  could not excel in academics because of his wandering thought. A schizotypal person generally has  eccentric thoughts. A schizoid will be happy with little social interaction. He fits into these criteria,” says Dr. R. Jayaprakash,  child psychatrist, behavioural paediatric unit, SAT Hospital.

Cadell’s talks on Astral projection experiments go well with a schizotypal person who generally believes in magical powers. “His family was learnt to be extra religious and used to interact less with each other. So there could have been persons with similar issues in the family. Unfortunately, this genetic predisposition cannot be confirmed as they are no more,” he added. Experts say that even outsiders will not be able to find out an issue as schizoid people are peaceful. “Such youths might not even exhibit immature or rash behaviour and will be termed as peaceful. They might not even pursue a person of the opposite sex,” he added.

All an attempt at Astral projection 

Cadell Jeansen Raj has confessed to killing four of his family as a part of astral projection experiment, says police. A section of media had speculated that he was into satanic worship. But police could not find such an angle. The cops had recovered a dummy that looked like the killer which he connects to astral projection. Astral projection revolves around the concept of people willfully separating their soul from the body. Some claim that this state could be achieved by self-hypnotism that gives an out-of-body-experience.

Cadell describes himself to be an advanced astral projection practitioner. “He claimed that his dummy was kept for him to attract souls into it and make him more powerful. Due to such types of claims, he was interrogated in the presence of a senior psychiatrist,” said DCP Arul R.B. Krishna. The ‘hobby’ of astral projection has too many followers, and workshops of lucid dreamers are conducted in several countries. A section of astral projection practitioners claims online that during the out-of-body experience they often interact with evil souls who can prevent the re-entry of their soul into the body. However, scientific methods do not justify them.

Axe from Flipkart; mom first target

The police officials who interrogated Cadell Jeasen Raja, 30,  has encountered some hurdles as the suspect claimed that he could not  recall many crucial details. The police sent the personal computer and smart phones of Cadell to CDAC for extracting the details from the  hard disk. This will provide  more insight into the meticulous planning that went into the murder  of four members of the family, officials said. Cadell  confessed that he had  been planning the murders  for some time. He had purchased a small axe from the online shopping platform, Flipkart,  for the purpose. On March 31, he purchased petrol from a pump at Pattom.

The first one to be targeted was his mother, Jean Padma, 58. Cadell on Wednesday morning invited her upstairs to view a demo of video game he claimed to have developed. She was seated before the computer before being struck on the head. His sister Carol, 25, and father Raja Thankam, 60, had gone out and just returned for lunch. Carol who finished the meal was invited upstairs and killed, followed by Raja Thankam. After spending more than a day, managing the stench of the body with phenol and chemicals, he decided to kill his blind relative Lalitha Jane, 70. On Friday she was taken upstairs and hacked to death and cut to pieces. He will be produced before the court on Wednesday and the police will seek his custody for detailed inquiry.