Mystery over three deaths at Kallambalam

Three seemingly unconnected deaths, out of which two were murders and one a suicide, over the course of two days in Kallambalam have now turned out to be a perplexing web of inter-connected events. When reports last came in, a special investigation team formed by the District Rural Police Chief (Rural) Divya.V.Gopinath was piecing together the final threads of the mystery. The chain of events began on Monday morning, when a newspaper agent found Ajikumar (49), head clerk of the Public Works Department (PWD) in Alappuzha, lying in a pool of blood at his house. Finding visible stab injuries, the police soon began investigation into the murder. Around 1.30 a.m. on Tuesday, one Sajeev drove a pickup truck onto a group of men with whom he was drinking a while back. One of the men, Ajith, got killed, while his friend Pramod sustained serious injuries. At around 6.30 a.m on Tuesday, Binuraj, a gym instructor, allegedly jumped in front of a moving KSRTC bus at Irupathettam Mile. Though all these were reported as separate incidents, the police soon realised that all of these men were connected in one way or the other to Ajikumar, who was found dead at his house. According to an investigating officer, on Sunday night, Ajikumar, who stays at his residence at Mullaramcode on weekends, hosted a booze party for his friends, in which Sajeev, Ajith and Pramod were part of with two others. After they left the party, Binuraj, Ajikumar’s neighbour, who was also drinking with his friends at his house, visited Ajikumar’s house with another man. Ajikumar and Binuraj quarelled and Binuraj allegedly stabbed him, with the police suspecting a history of enmity between the two. On Monday night,Sajeev, Ajith, Pramod and the other friends got together again to drink, when they discussed their friend’s death. Some of them, including Ajith, had allegedly accused Sajeev of having a hand in Binuraj’s death, as he was the last to leave the house the previous night. This led to a fight between the group. In a fit of rage after being wrongly accused, Sajeev allegedly drove his pick up truck into the group killing Ajith and injuring Pramod. Though the police are yet to conclusively arrive at a reason for Binuraj’s alleged suicide the next day, it is suspected that he might have sensed the police closing in on him. The police have taken ten people, including Sajeev, into custody, and have been questioning them to piece together the puzzle.