An old photo taken at a wedding was the crucial lead that ended a nearly two-decade-long manhunt for the accused in the Anchal triple murder case, which happened in 2006. The CBI, which arrested Divil Kumar and Rajesh from Puducherry, who were absconding in a case of brutal murder of a 24-year-old woman and her newborn girl-twins in Anchal acted on valuable inputs from Kerala police, thanks to the use of open source intelligence and AI tools by the technical intelligence wing of the special branch of Kerala police.

When the team started working on the case, they had barely anything to start with. Search at the local police station also yielded nothing with regard to images they could work on. It was then that the team sourced a photo of Divil Kumar taken at a wedding he had attended.

"The technical intelligence wing made use of image metadata employing reverse search, aided by AI tools and found matches on social media. This was used to trace the present address and the information was handed over to the CBI," said Manoj Abraham, ADGP (Law & Order) who currently holds the charge of state police chief.

The murder pertaining to the case happened in 2006 at a rented house in Aeram, Anchal. Ranjini, an unmarried woman, gave birth to twins at the SAT hospital, Thiruvananthapuram. She had been in a relationship with Divil Kumar. Ranjini had filed a complaint with the Kerala State Women's Commission against Divil Kumar regarding the paternity of the babies and sought protection.

The Commission issued a directive to subject Divil Kumar to a DNA test. However, before the test was conducted, Ranjini and her babies were found murdered in their rented house when her mother, Santhamma, had gone to the panchayat office. Ranjini was found with deep stab wounds on her neck while her babies had their throats slit. Ranjini's body was found in the drawing room, while the babies were found killed on the bed.

Police later found out from residents that a man named Rajesh alias Anil Kumar used to frequent the house. Rajesh met Ranjini and Santhamma at SAT hospital when she was admitted for delivery. Rajesh then dropped them back at Aeram after the delivery. He visited them regularly and won their trust. The probe into the murder led to the involvement of Rajesh and Divil Kumar. However, both of them went absconding in 2006.

The CBI re-registered the case in 2010 and undertook an investigation in compliance with the order of the High Court of Kerala, transferring the investigation of the case to the CBI. CBI investigation also revealed that the murders were committed by Divil Kumar, a resident of Alayamon in Kollam and his friend Rajesh, a resident of Kannur. Both of them served in the army and later were declared as deserters. After a thorough investigation, a charge sheet was filed by the CBI before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ernakulam, against both the accused, who were declared as proclaimed offenders by the Court.

Based on information received from Kerala police, a team of CBI officers traced both Divil Kumar and Rajesh to Puducherry and nabbed them on Friday. CBI also found out that Divil Kumar had impersonated and changed his name to Vishnu while Rajesh assumed the identity of Praveen Kumar. They had got married, purchased properties, and settled there. They were produced before the jurisdictional Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ernakulam on Saturday and have been remanded into judicial custody. 

The news of the arrest of the accused reminded residents of Aeram of the day when they came to know of the shocking murder. "It was around noon and I remember Santhamma screaming aloud in front of the house. We had no clue what had happened. We went inside and saw the bodies of babies. Ants were running over their faces. I could never get over that sight," said Santosh, ward member of Anchal panchayat who was one of the first to arrive at the crime scene in 2006.