Solving Crime : How a climb up a tree in Kerala landed a double murderer in Karnataka police net after four years

The Puttur rural police found that a gold chain belonging to Soumya was missing. As the investigations progressed, a neighbour informed the police that she had seen Soumya’s brother-in-law Jayesh walking out of the house hours before the bodies were discovered.

While the police began the investigation, they were unable to find Jayesh despite travelling to various places he often visited.They then turned to Sameer, who lived in the region.

A police officer said, “Jayesh had converted to Islam when he was 17 years old and his lifelong friend was Sameer. The police went to Sameer’s home, where he said that Jayesh had asked him to sell a gold chain. Sameer’s mother Rukiya Bhanu helped sell the gold ornament, but they were unaware that it had been stolen after the murders of Soumya and her son.”

The police went to the pawn shop where the gold chain had been sold and confirmed that it belonged to Soumya.

Jayesh, who was in his 20s when the murders took place, is the son of Shashikanth N A. After converting to Islam, Jayesh renamed himself as Shakeer alias Shahir. Prior to the murders, he had been released on bail in a theft case. The police had a photo of him that was already four years old.

A police officer said, “Our main suspicion was that he would contact Sameer someday, either over the phone or in person. Sameer remained on the police radar but Jayesh never contacted him.”

A tree climb that cost Jayesh dear

Unable to trace Jayesh, the police filed a closure report and the fear in the village faded over time.

By then, Suresh Kumar P had been transferred as circle inspector of the Puttur rural police station. “We did not know where Jayesh was, and honestly, there were no efforts to trace him. The only photo we had was from four years before the double murder, and I was posted to Puttur rural in 2012. With an eight-year-old photo and no track of meeting known contacts, the case had not moved anywhere.”

In October 2012, a news video from Kerala caught the attention of the police. On October 7, Jayesh and his friend Anas were arrested in Alappuzha for allegedly assaulting a woman under the influence of alcohol. However, Jayesh managed to escape.

Jayesh climbed a tree to evade the police, and despite several requests, he refused to come down. Local media began telecasting the video of police pleading with Jayesh to get down from the coconut tree. Eventually, fire personnel were called in to bring him down.

Suresh Kumar said, “A police officer who was interrogating Jayesh in Kerala called to inform me that they had arrested a man from Dakshina Kannada district in an assault case. He then shared the news clips, and what immediately stuck in my mind was the double murder case that had remained unsolved for four years. We reached Kerala, and upon arriving at the police station, it was confirmed that it was Jayesh alias Shakeer who was wanted in the double murder.”

According to the police, after killing his sister-in-law and her son, Jayesh alias Shakeer escaped to Kerala, where he started working as a labourer. He fell in love with a Muslim girl and married her and the couple had a child.

“If it was just a case of assaulting a woman, the media might not have highlighted it. It was only because he climbed up the coconut tree that it became an interesting story for them to follow. Had he not climbed the tree, I think we might not have arrested him,” Kumar said laughing.

When questioned by the police about why he killed Soumya, Jayesh claimed he did so to steal her gold chain, as he was in need of money. Asked why Jishnu was killed, he said the child had witnessed the first murder and that he did not want to leave any witnesses.

Conviction

The Puttur rural police filed a chargesheet containing 15 pieces of evidence and statements from 27 individuals. The prosecution argued that Soumya and Jishnu were innocent and helpless.

On August 9, 2016, the 5th Additional District and Sessions Court of Dakshina Kannada ordered the death penalty for Jayesh. Judge M Ramachandra said in his order, “This case fits into the framework of the rarest of rare cases. The accused deserves no sympathy, and taking into consideration society at large, since there is no security for the lives of innocent people like the deceased and also the threat posed by the accused to the witnesses who deposed against him, they may not receive any security. From a person like the accused, society cannot expect any service to the community; hence, he has no right to live in the future for his gruesome genocide of deceased Soumya and her child Jishnu.”

Suresh Kumar recalls that by the end of the trial, Jayesh had realised he could not escape from the law. “We had an eyewitness who saw Jayesh walking after killing the duo. There was also scientific evidence supporting the case. In fact, the gold ornament was recovered. As the trial neared its conclusion, Jayesh began behaving erratically. On one occasion, he threw slippers at the judge during the hearing and tried to escape from the court on another.”

Jayesh later approached the Karnataka High Court, which commuted his death penalty to life imprisonment on October 13, 2017.

Lodged in Hindalga Central Prison in Belagavi, Jayesh came on the police radar again after he made a threat call to Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s office. He then allegedly made a ransom call seeking Rs 100 crore, claiming to be a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang. The National Investigation Agency eventually filed a closure report in the threat case before a Mumbai court, citing a lack of evidence.

In June this year, Jayesh made headlines again when he raised “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans while attending court in a case registered against him.