Out on bail in murder case, Kerala man kills first victim’s husband, mother-in-law: Police

Alathur Deputy Superintendent of Police N Muraleedharan said that ahead of the 2019 murder, Chenthamara was living alone after separation from his wife. “He believed that his wife had walked out of his life because of black magic performed by neighbours, especially the family of Sudhakaran. Chenthamara was a strong believer in black magic…,” the DySP said.

DySP Muraleedharan said a major manhunt was underway for the accused, a truck driver who is in his late 50s.

“The family had been facing a threat from Chenthamara and police had warned him after summoning him to the station. As threatening the victim’s (Sajitha’s) family amounted to a violation of bail conditions, we had already started the process to cancel his bail,” the officer said.

K Preman, who had served as Nenmara panchayat president in 2019, recalled that 38-year-old Sajitha was murdered without any provocation.

“Chenthamara, a school dropout, had been suspicious about his wife, a graduate, who had been very social and active in the community. She separated from him due to harassment and torture. Then, he hired someone claiming to be a sorcerer, who is known to have told Chenthamara that his wife abandoned him as a result of black magic performed by a woman with very long hair. Incidentally, Sajitha had long hair and Chenthamara suspected she was behind the black magic, leading to the murder. There was no provocation for act,” said Preman.

When granting bail in 2022, one of the conditions imposed on Chenthamara was that he should not enter the jurisdiction of Nenmara police station. In May 2024, the no-entry condition was eased, limiting it to just Nenmara panchayat. However, police sources said that he had violated this condition, too, but that it was not noticed by officials.

Nenmara panchayat member M Manjusha said that after Chenthamara was released on bail, Sudhakaran’s family had been feeling under threat.

“Sudhakaran, who is also a truck driver, was away from home on most days. Hence, his youngest daughter Akhila moved to her mother’s house and Lakshmi moved to the house of another daughter – both in the same region. Chenthamara used to threaten others in the region too. Many people had raised the matter. On Monday, Akhila came to Nenmara to process some applications for her father. Before she could do that, he was murdered,” Manjusha said.

When their mother was killed in 2019, Sudhakaran’s eldest daughter Athulya was a nursing student and the younger one, Akhila, was in class 9. Now a college student, Akhila on Monday said the family had complained about a threat from the accused, but the police had not taken action.

“My father was threatened by Chenthamara. We had complained to the police on December 29, but they never took action. He was summoned to the police station and then released. In 2019, I lost my mother, and now my father too,” she said, breaking down while speaking to the media.