The special investigation team probing the multiple blasts at the Jehovah’s Witnesses prayer convention at Kalamassery recorded the arrest of lone suspect Martin V.D. by Monday evening, more than 24 hours after he surrendered before the Kodakara police.
He was being grilled by a team led by investigation officer S. Sasidharan, Deputy Commissioner (Kochi City), at the Kalamassery Armed Reserve Camp since he was taken into the custody. Almost the entire top brass of the police, including State Police Chief Sheikh Darvesh Sahib, was in the city for the second day running.
Sources attributed the delay in recording the arrest to the time taken for verifying his account confessing to the crime and in pursuit of potential aides. There was also the time-consuming process of collecting and analysing the entire CCTV footage of the movements of the accused. Verifying his motive, which he said was his disenchantment with the Jehovah’s Witnesses movement, behind the dastardly act has been cited as another reason. The investigation team also collected the CCTV footage from the convention centre for the entire three days of the prayer convention. Blasts occurred on the final day of the convention.
