Preliminary investigations indicated that it was a planned murder, committed possibly by a close friend or acquaintance of George Unnunni.
Murder (Representational image)
A special investigation team comprising Superintendent of Police (SP) V Ajith and two deputy SPs has been constituted to nab those who strangled a 73-year-old grocery shop owner to death at Mylapra in the Pathanamthitta district of southern Kerala in the afternoon of Saturday, 30 December.
Preliminary investigations indicated that it was a planned murder, possibly committed by a close friend or acquaintance of George Unnunni, the trader.
The hands and legs of the victim were tied using pieces of cloth, and some old clothes were shoved into his mouth.
His gold chain, weighing nine sovereigns, was missing from the body. There were injuries to the neck, which showed that the culprits strangled him to death.
The CCTV camera at the shop was among those stolen from there after the murder.
Early on Sunday morning, a dog squad and fingerprint experts arrived at the incident spot from Thiruvananthapuram as part of the efforts to gather evidence.
Ajith told South First that the motive of the murder might be robbery, as per the early findings.
Shaji George, the son of the late shop owner, serves as a secretary at the Mylapra Cooperative Bank. He told South First that his father tended to take a daily afternoon nap inside the shop as there would be no normal customers after lunch.
As ever before, George typically used a green plastic net to shield the front of the store from the scorching sun and then proceeded to nap.
Around 5 pm, a customer reached the shop and started calling for George. In the absence of any response, he entered the shop and found George in a condition of being suffocated to death. How much money the murderer has taken is unknown.
The police said the stealing of the CCTV camera’s hard drive indicated that a person who was close to George had committed the murder.
George had been operating this store in Mylapra for 11 years. George was in Libya as a construction worker for over three decades, and he started the shop — named Puduvelikkal Store — on his return from there.
The store is located on the Punalur-Muvattupuzha highway in George’s own building. The shop was covered from the front with a green plastic sheet to protect it from heat.
Those who committed the crime are thought to have arrived after realising that what happened inside the store would not be visible to those who travel by road.
Professional thieves who might have acquaintances with George are thought to be responsible for the murder, according to the police.
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