The father of a seven-year-old boy who was allegedly tortured to death in Thodupuzha by POCSO case-convict Arun Anand was also murdered, the Crime Branch has said.
Biju was found dead at his wife's residence on May 23, 2018 and the cause of death was found to be heart attack from the postmortem.
However, the Crime Branch that took over the case based on a complaint filed by Biju's father performed a re-postmortem and found he had been strangulated.
The investigators have decided to subject Biju's wife to a polygraph test. The court has yet to approve the test on Biju's mother-in-law.
Arun Anand's potential involvement in the murder of Biju, who was his cousin, is also being probed.
Arun Anand, who is set to face trial in the torture killing of Biju's 7-year-old son in April 2019 had been sentenced to 21 years by a POCSO Court on Thursday for sexually abusing the victim's youngset son, who was four.
Biju's family has accused his wife and her mother of murdering him. According to the family, Biju's wife wanted to move in with Arun Anand three days after his death.
The family grew suspicious as the woman began living together with Arun Anand. They had written to the chief minister's office demanding a probe.
On March 28, 2019, Biju's wife and Arun Anand took the 7-year-old to a private hospital saying the boy had sustained injuries after falling off the bed.
The doctor who attended to the child informed the police. It had emerged that Arun Anand grabbed the child by its legs and slammed him against a wall for urinating on a sofa.
The incident occurred at a rented place at Kumaramangalam. Further investigation revealed that Arun Anand sexually abused the 4-year-old boy when his elder brother was hospitalised with serious injuries.
The mother was also arrested on charge of murder of the seven-year-old but later released on bail.
