KOCHI: Perumbavoor woke up to yet another brutal incident early on Wednesday morning after a woman from Kottapady, in her early forties, was raped and hacked to death by a migrant labourer. Perumbavoor police arrested Umar Ali (27) — son of Abul Hussain hailing from Nagaon district in Assam — later in the day after tracing his location. A police team was sent to Assam to verify his antecedents. In April 2016, a dalit woman was raped and killed by a migrant labourer from Assam.
The victim was staying away from her family. Both she and Ali used to roam the streets and sleep in front of shops at night, police said, adding that the incident happened around 1am.
“The CCTV footage we got showed the woman being dragged into a deserted alley. He tried to force himself on her and she resisted. He then used a hoe and attacked her multiple times and weakened her. He raped her and then hacked her again. The man even destroys a CCTV camera in the vicinity before leaving,” said a senior police officer with the rural police.
Police said that the character of the accused was peculiar. “He used to roam around sniffing glue and it seems he was into substance abuse as well. He is healthy enough to do manual labour but we are yet to ascertain if he was employed by any agency in Perumbavoor. We located a few persons who knew him and got a lead on his family in Nagaon,” said the officer.
The woman had injuries on her head, face and limbs and it seems she died due to loss of blood as the accused had hit her a dozen times with the hoe, sources said.
The accused left the spot soon after the crime and the body remained abandoned at the spot till 5.30am until a man reached the spot and saw the bloody corpse. A police team rushed to the spot and collected evidence. The entire act — from dragging her to the alley, rape and murder — was caught on camera, said sources.
He was roaming the streets in Perumbavoor when police launched a search to nab him with a copy of his image received from CCTV footage. Officers said that there were bloodstains on his body and when they questioned him, he confessed his crime.
“We are unsure if the man had previous dealings with the woman. This will be investigated. His act was caught on camera and all scientific evidence was collected,” said a senior police officer.
The man was questioned throughout the day by a police team led by deputy SP PK Bijumon. “He is quite a character and we couldn’t nail a specific reason why he attacked her. He just committed the violent act,” said the officer.
The accused was arrested by a team comprising Perumbavoor SI Basil Thomas, Kalady CI TR Santhosh, SI Radhakrishnan Sasi, ASIs Sivaprasad, Sivas, Dileep, Rajeev, Rajendran, Vinod, senior CPO Noushad and CPOs Nikhil, Jaimon, Prajith, Sukanya, Rahima and Dhanya.
Source – timesofindia.indiatimes.com
