Kannur: A friendship with a BJP District Committee member drove a self-styled hunter to gun down her husband, Radhakrishnan K K (55) — a grassroots party worker and goods autorickshaw driver — in Kannur’s Mathamangalam near Kaithapram on Thursday night, according to the FIR filed by the police.

Based on the complaint filed by a close relative, Pariyaram Medical College Police arrested Santhosh N K of Perumpadavu in Chapparapadava Grama Panchayat, 20km away, for the murder. According to the FIR, Santosh showed undue closeness to the victim's wife. When he was not allowed to continue the friendship, he shot dead her husband.

What made the crime even more chilling was that Santhosh allegedly spent the day dropping disturbing hints of his murderous intent on Facebook. Radhakrishnan was shot at close range, allegedly with a shotgun, at a house he was building for his mother-in-law in Mathamangalam under Kadannappally-Panapuzha Grama Panchayat. Santhosh, police said, was working at the site as a labourer. He was also a schoolmate of the victim’s wife.

Earlier that evening, Radhakrishnan had been watching a neighbourhood volleyball game in front of his house. After the match, he walked to the construction site, just 10 metres away, said local panchayat member N K Sujith.

Around 7.10 pm, Santhosh arrived and allegedly shot him, according to the FIR. "His son called the police and alerted the neighbours, but none of us believed it at first — we’d just seen him enjoying the volleyball match," Sujith said.

Pariyaram police alerted an off-duty officer in the area, who rushed to the spot. "When he reached the under-construction house, Santhosh was sitting in the veranda, heavily drunk. But the murder weapon was missing," Sujith said.

When neighbours and police found Radhakrishnan, he was alive. "But he did not make it to the hospital," said Sujith.

Different persona on Facebook
Santhosh had carefully curated a persona on Facebook—a do-gooder, blood donor, and hunter on hire for panchayats battling wild animal raids. Often seen in Army fatigues wandering the wild, he was a different beast on Facebook.

But Jyothi Lakshmi M, Santhosh’s neighbour and Perumpadavu ward member, said Chapparapadava Grama Panchayat has no such hunter squad to kill wild boars. "We are surprised to learn he had a gun. As far as I know, he does manual labour for a living,” she said.

Her predecessor Kunhikrishnan K P recalled Santhosh as a bus cleaner. "He is unmarried and lives with his parents. They barely made ends meet," he said.

At 7.27 pm on Thursday, minutes after Radhakrishnan was killed, Santhosh posted: “I told you not to do anything to my girl… You can do whatever you want to me, even if I lose my life, I’ll bear it. But my girl… you won’t be forgiven for that."

At 4.23 pm, before the murder, he had written: "The task is to hit… Hitting is guaranteed," alongside a photo of him aiming a double-barrel shotgun — possibly the murder weapon.

Earlier at 9.52 am, he had a longer message: "Sometimes, decisions might already be taken in someone’s mind… If we fail to understand it even in the final stage, it will go out of our hands... Never isolate anyone; stay with them as long as you can. In this short life, try not to be a burden to anyone. If our presence becomes a burden to someone, do not go near them — let them never have to see us again."

On February 23, he posted: "If you believe that you have done no wrong to anyone, you don’t need to prove your innocence before anyone. Time bears witness to everything. Our life is life only for us — for others, it is merely a story they hear or just a topic of conversation with someone else."

Though his friends dismissed them with laughing emojis, in hindsight, his posts mirrored his frustrations and anger.

Sujith, the Congress panchayat member, said Radhakrishnan was a do-gooder, always available for the people of his village, irrespective of their political affiliations. "But Santhosh was creating trouble in his family. Three months ago, police had called the couple to discuss the matter. We thought it was settled," he said.

Pariyaram Medical College Station House Officer - Inspector Vinish Kumar M P, who is investigating the case, said the two had exchanged angry phone calls before the murder. "We will have to investigate it," he said. For now, police are scouring Radhakrishnan’s house and the surrounding area for the gun that killed him.