'Bodies undetected for whole day; Anand cut open and buried them at night'

Palakkad: Revealing more gruesome details about the incident where the bodies of two youths were found buried in a paddy field near Palneeri Colony in Ambalaparambu at Kodumbu here, police said the bodies were lying in the field for an entire day without anyone noticing them.

On Wednesday, relatives identified the deceased as Satheesh (22) of Kalandithara in Pudussery and Shijith (22) of Thekkekunnam in Kottekkad. Police concluded that the duo was electrocuted from a device set to trap wild boars.

Police said the accused J Anand Kumar (52), who was arrested on Wednesday, saw the bodies lying in the field on Monday morning. However, he cut off the electricity supply to the trap and returned home. Later that night, he returned to the field, buried the bodies and attempted to destroy the evidence.

"The bodies were lying in the field for an entire day and nobody noticed it. Around 10 pm Anand came back to the spot and dragged the bodies for 10 metres before burying them. He removed their clothes, cut open their abdomen using a knife and stomped the bodies into the ground. He threw the clothes, the iron wires that electrocuted the duo and their shoes in various parts of the Malampuzha Left Canal in Karingarappulli. The mobile phone of one of the youths was found in a forest on the opposite side of the canal. He kept the spade he used to dig the hole in an old fridge on the farm," said a police officer.

Anand confessed to the crime and said he tried to destroy the evidence out of fear.

Before switching to farming, Anand was an AC mechanic. So, he is familiar with electrical work. He set up the device to trap the wild animals himself and sourced the electricity from a bathroom outside the house.

Power was transmitted through an insulated wire that was pulled through a pipe connected to the farm from the bathroom at a distance of 100 metres. The wires are connected to another set of iron wires to set up the electric trap. Both sides of the line were also equipped with a system to transmit and disconnect power if required, the officer said.

According to the police, Shijith ran ahead of Satheesh on Monday morning. There are marks of an electric shock above Shijith's left knee. He had grass on his hand when his body was found. "Shijith, who ran first, tripped on the wire and fell down. He held on to the grass and the trap fell to the ground on impact. Satheesh, who was behind Shijith, likely received the electrical shock through his foot," said an officer.

Police took the bodies out under the supervision of RDO D Amritavalli at 8.45 am. District Police Chief R Anand, ASPA Shahul Hameed, Chittoor DySP C Sundaran, Tehsildars V Sudhakaran, T Radhakrishnan, forensic surgeon Dr P B Gujral, district inspectors Shiju Abraham, N S Rajeev, Aneesh Kumar, SI V Hemalatha, I Sunil Kumar, electrical inspector K P Santhosh, deputy electrical inspector P Sheena, assistant electrical inspector P Noufal were also at the spot during the inspection.

The incident

The series of events that led to the death of the youngsters started with a fight at Venoli on Sunday night. On a complaint filed by one of the injured at Kasaba station, police registered a case against 10 identifiable people, including Satheesh and Shijith and their friends Abhin and Ajith. Following this, all four escaped to Satheesh's relative's house in Ambalaparambu. On Tuesday morning, Shijith and Satheesh were reported missing by their relatives and they lodged a complaint with Kasaba police.

However, the police sent the relatives back suspecting they might have gone into hiding as they were accused in the assault case. However, when the relatives informed that Abhin and Ajith had returned, the police asked them to surrender, following which an investigation was launched.

Illegal electric fencing a crime

Illegal electric fencing of private property is a serious offence. KSEB considers transmitting electricity through devices to open fields to trap wild animals as electricity theft. As happened at Ambalaparambu, it could even cause death, which would attract a homicide case.

Installing fencing on private properties requires permission from KSEB and other departments. To draw electricity from one's house or to set up solar fencing, special permission is required.

Imprisonment up to 3 years

The forest department, on its part, said those setting up illegal fencing and traps will be imprisoned for up to three years, or punished according to the severity of the crime.