Month after CBI filed FIR into their son’s mysterious death, Kerala couple found murdered at home

Their son, Gautham, who was an entrepreneur at Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, was found dead on the railway tracks in Kottayam on June 3, 2017. The previous night, he had left home to meet a friend, but did not return.

With the investigation into Gautham’s death not making any major headway, his father Vijayakumar had approached the High Court seeking a CBI probe. The court on February 19 this year ordered a probe by the CBI, which on March 21 registered an FIR in the case.

Kottayam district police superintendent Shahul Hameed confirmed that the couple was murdered and that a probe is on. The bodies were found with multiple injuries, and one person has been taken into custody in connection with the case, he said.

“The motive seems to be personal rivalry, and a suspect has been taken into custody. A hatchet suspected to have been used to commit the crime was recovered from the house. A special team has been formed to probe the murders,” he said.

According to police, the house was under CCTV coverage and the couple had two guard dogs. The digital video recorder of the CCTV cameras were found stolen, and both dogs were found to have been incapacitated by some substance. The couple’s bodies were found in different rooms at the house, police said.

The person in police custody is a migrant worker from Assam, who had been previously employed by the couple. A few months ago, the migrant worker had allegedly stolen a mobile phone from the house and was subsequently arrested, police said.