Couple convicted for man’s murder

Kottayam: The Kottayam district additional sessions court on Monday convicted a history-sheeter and his wife, who were arrested for murdering a man, chopping his body into three parts, and abandoning the parts in different areas. The victim was the ex-lover of the wife. It was Vinod Kumar alias Kammal Vinod, 46, and his wife Kunjumol, 44, who were convicted by district additional sessions court judge J Nazar.
The incident that led to the case happened in Aug 2017. The body parts of a man, without head, were found in a sack near a culvert in Manganam on Aug 27. Since the head was missing, police initially had difficulty in identifying the victim.
Focusing on the missing cases in the region, police found out that the body was of Santhosh, a Meenadom native. The dress and footwear were shown to his parents to confirm this.
During probe police found that Santhosh made several phone calls to Kunjumol before he was murdered. Police found that Kunjumol and Santhosh had an affair. During interrogation, Kunjumol confessed to the crime and said the head was abandoned in the canal in Manganam. Police retrieved the body part that was found inside a plastic cover in the canal. During further interrogation, Vinod confessed that the two jointly committed the crime.
Kunjumol became close to Santhosh while Vinod was in jail for murdering his father. She also left her children to live with Santhosh. Vinod, who was in jail, came to know about this and wanted to take revenge on Santhosh. When Vinod came out of the jail, he brought Kunjumol back to his house.
After working out a plan to murder Santhosh, Vinod took an isolated house in the middle of a rubber plantation for rent to live. On Aug 23, 2017, he sent his children to a relative's house and asked Kunjumol to invite Santhosh to the house.
While Santhosh came and sat on the verandah, Vinod came from behind and hit him on his head several times with an iron rod. He then chopped the body into three parts and abandoned two parts in one place and the cover carrying the head in a canal. He used his autorickshaw to travel to these places.
There were no witnesses in the case. The court convicted the accused based on circumstantial evidence and scientific evidence.