Belief in afterlife led to death of Malayali couple, female friend in Arunachal Pradesh

Thiruvananthapuram: The investigation into the death of the Kottayam couple and their teacher friend has revealed that they believed in the afterlife.

Pointing to the internet searches where they looked for YouTube videos describing the life after death, police say their suicide bod was part of this belief.

Manorama News reported that Naveen Thomas (39) and his wife Devi (41) booked the room in an Itanagar hotel claiming they were parents and Arya B Nair (29) was their daughter. They checked in on March 28 and then extended their stay. When they did not come out of the room for a couple of days, the hotel manager went in to check on them.

Hotel staff told Manorama News that the room was not locked. They found the female bodies first. Naveen was found dead in the toilet. Police found the suicide note and the numbers to contact in Kerala.

Vattiyookkavu police, investigating based on the complaint that Arya had gone missing, initially found out that she had boarded a flight to Guwahati along with the Kottayam couple.

Police here told Malayala Manorama that they suspect a group that believes in life after death exists in Kerala. The cyber wing got the wind of it while probing into their internet search, police said.

Founder-Director of the Soorya Stage and Film Society Soorya Krishnamurthy told Manorama that the couple was the victim of black magic. "Devi is my relative. The two were well learned who fell for the black magic. This must be taken seriously. There are groups in Thiruvananthapuram who believe in black magic," he said.

Naveen, from Meenadam in Kottayam, and his wife Vattiyookvau native Devi were Ayurveda doctors. They were married for 13 years. Family sources said that they had stopped practicing and Naveen started a cake business. Of late they were aloof raising suspicion among the family. However, they never spoke to anyone about their beliefs. Since they had told family members that they were going to Arunachal on vacation, no one suspected anything.

Devi befriended Arya when she started teaching German at a private school in Thiruvananthapuram. The latter was a French teacher there.