Jailed serial killer Jayanandan was behind the 2004 twin murder near Kochi, Kerala police said on Monday as they claimed to having cracked the 17-year-old crime mystery.
Talking to reporters in Kochi, additional director general of police S Sreejith said Jayanandan, who is also an accused in eight other murder cases, reportedly confided about the twin murder to a fellow prisoner six months back. Later, the Kerala police crime branch pieced together all information provided by the other inmate to reach the conclusion, the ADGP said.
Jayanandan, who is lodged in Thiruvanthapuram central jail, was formally arrested by the crime branch and a fresh charge sheet will be filed against the serial offender, said Sreejith.
According to the police, the twin murder took place on May 30, 2004, when a retired executive officer V Nanikutty Ammal (73) and her cousin TV Narayana Iyer (60) were brutally killed in their home. Both were attacked with a ripper, police said.
While in most cases robbery was the main motive, he also sexually abused some of his victims, police said.
The ADGP said one of the witnesses, who saw the assailant coming out of the house after the crime, also identified the accused during a parade last month. Later, the crime branch recovered some gold stolen from the house.
“It was a difficult case to crack. Now we have solid evidence against the serial killer,” said the ADGP.
An accused in eight murder cases, besides several burglaries and attacks, Jayanandan was sentenced to death in the double murder of an aged couple in Thrissur in 2014. The Kerala high court, however, commuted it to life sentence without parole in 2016.
According to the police, all murders took place between 2002 and 2006. In 2013, he escaped from the central jail in Thiruvananthapuram after scaling an eight-metre-high wall, but police netted him again after three months.
