Karikan Villa murder case
On the Tiruvalla – Kojancherry route, Karikan Villa stood tall with the modern style of the 80s house. There lived a middle-aged couple who had come to the country with the money they earned after working in Kuwait for a long time. The head of the family is George (63) and his wife Rachel (56).
They had no children. Therefore, it is said that many relatives had an eye on their property. Due to these reasons, they do not bring any relatives who ask for help at home to Ejayalam. They also kept a distance from the neighbors. There was a maid named Gauri who used to come to that house all the time. They come to work in the morning and return home in the evening.
On October 7, 1980, Gauri came to work early in the morning as usual. But contrary to the norm, both of them were not seen outside.
Looking in through the window near the back door, what they saw was horrifying.
Both the couple were stabbed and covered in blood.
They stood stunned for a while and went out and informed the locals. They were still shaking. They were also in that shock.
People started running after hearing about the incident.
A political activist informed the police. They arrived very quickly. The first 24 hours are very important for any crime. Do not clutter the scene. Very valuable evidence is often lost due to the rush of people.
The police arrived and examined the dead bodies. George was lying next to the settee in the living room of the house and Rachel was in the hallway leading to the kitchen. Rachel was stabbed in the stomach. Four cups of tea were there.
Gauri told the police that when she was returning from work yesterday evening, 4 people came in the car. Then someone else came there besides the couple. Then search for that way. The housemaid questioned Gauri again. They were afraid and could not say anything.
After a murder, the first thing the police look for is whether anything has been stolen. Here, Rachel’s jewelry, George’s Rolex watch, tape recorder, money from the cupboard, etc. were stolen. That is, the murder was committed for theft. Later, the police turned their attention to checking whether these fingerprints belonged to the notorious thieves.
This was the first investigation in the career of then ASP CB Mathews. He later became famous by proving huge cases. The accused had dragged the whole house. There were blood-stained shoe marks on the papers scattered below. Such a shoe was never seen in Kerala at that time.
At that time, Bata was the leading shoe manufacturer. I took a lot of photos of those shoes and showed them in the Bata showroom. Then they said that these shoes are foreign made.
Then search for that way.
CB Mathews made one thing clear. “It was not done by professional goons”. It must have been done by luxury-loving youths.
He attributed it to the stain on these shoes. It was foreign made shoes as the debtors said. Also stabbed with a kitchen knife. The handle of the knife was broken and hanging low on Rachel’s stomach. If they were professional gangsters, they would have brought weapons with them. And if this couple, who do not show closeness to anyone, opened the door and offered tea, at least one of those who came must be their acquaintances. So again the inquiry turned to the relatives.
Meanwhile, Gauri revealed something. This one sentence led to this brutal murder.
In cases where there are no eyewitnesses, they may have left a trail of evidence leading to the murderer. No matter how skillfully the killing is done, a loop hole will remain. The media will describe it as the signature of God. In police parlance it is called a visiting card. The murderer’s visiting card. In this, those foreign-made shoes and Gauri’s statement became visiting cards.
On the 6th of October, when Gauri was about to leave after work, a car came to the house and immediately Ammachi made four more teas and told her to leave.
When asked who it was, Ammachi replied, “It’s Mona from Madras.” It was this statement that later led to the accused.
But recently one of its investigating officers, the then DySP of the Crime Detachment, KN Bal, said Gauri had never uttered the word “Madrasile mon”. It is a media creation.
It was Baal who drew up the plan of action at the beginning of this case.
He was the one who questioned Gauri.
He says he didn’t get the credit the case proved, and many others took it.
Gauri said then – when she asked Ammachi who was coming, “It is a relative of father’s.” “I am studying in Madras” – he said then. Anyway, Moan in Madras was written by some imaginative cop who wrote a crime diary. It later spawned a movie of the same name.
Gauri revealed this on the fourth day after the incident. They were afraid. Gauriamma was very afraid that if he could kill the talented father and mother, he would also kill me who pointed him out. It was their brother who gave them courage. “If we die after telling the truth, we can die together,” he promised. However, every time the accused was released on parole, Gauri used to tremble with fear. She passed away two years ago at the age of 98. By becoming the main witness in a case that shocked Kerala, he said goodbye to a person synonymous with truthfulness.
That same day, the investigators made a family tree of both of them.
In it, a son of George Appachan’s mother’s sister’s daughter is studying aeronautical engineering in Madras.
When I inquired more about the person, I realized that the person was a son of a madman. A thug who destroys property and lives on drugs and alcohol.
Although he studies in Madras, he does not go to any college.
Immediately two people chased them and left for Madras.
Tamilnadu police did not cooperate with our police then as now. Science and technology have not improved so much.
One of these seekers was an artist associated with drama. Old film actor MG Soman was his friend.
They went to Woodland Lodge, where the film actors were staying, and told MG Soman and actor Janardhanan, who lived in the next room. They were ready to help them.
They arranged a car and a driver with Madras experience.
Went to most of the lodges but couldn’t find anything. So on the third day of going to Madras, they reached a lodge. When their information was given, it was found that they were staying in a room there.
When they entered the room, the first thing they found were those foreign-made shoes. When asked why the shoes were not thrown away, Reny replied, “Because they are very expensive shoes.”
It was Reny George, son of father’s mother’s sister’s daughter named George of Karikan Villa. He and his friend Hasan Gulam Mohammed from Mauritius were arrested that day.
He was taken to the nearest police station.
They made it possible for them to be interrogated.
Everything was revealed from questioning them. They are the ones who committed the murder. Apart from them there were two more people. It is clear that the suspects are Gunasekharan, a native of Malaysia, and Kiblo Daniel, a Kenyan.
Gunasekaran was arrested the next day.
But Kibalo, the son of a Kenyan politician, went to the Kenyan embassy saying that he had lost his passport and that he had to go home urgently. He later surrendered to the Thiruvalla police.
Thus the murder took place within ten days without the help of any science and technology, the Kerala Police arrested all the accused of this murder.
They were produced in court. Sent to Thiruvananthapuram Jail. Only Kib Law was later shifted to Tihar Jai.
Gauri was under a lot of pressure to change her statement during the trial. The father of the first defendant, Reny George, had said that he would give the land and the house. But Gauri stuck to the same statement. After learning about their difficult situation, a voluntary organization repaired their house. They stood firm in honesty.
Reny George was portrayed by the media as the couple’s adopted son and so on. But there was no closeness between them. They have seen each other twice. One was Reny’s mother’s father – that is, George’s mother’s sister-in-law’s husband, who introduced Reny when the couple came to visit them in hospital. Reny went to their house one day to return the flask they had brought tea with. Even then nothing went inside. The murder was on the third visit. They are addicted to alcohol and drugs and have committed thefts for money before.
They also stole the car that came to Karikan Villa that day.
Reny’s father’s car number was forged and pasted on it. Reny’s parents were in Delhi and all the details of their car were photocopied and kept in hand.
A person living next door to Karikan Villa had confirmed that a vehicle with a non-Kerala number came to the house.
Reny was returning to Karikan Villa by car with friends Kiblo Daniel (Kenya), Gunasekaran (Malaysia) and Ghulam Muhammad (Mauritius).
The intention was an attempted robbery, but when George resisted, it resulted in murder.
Reny did this, making sure that no mistake could be made. Therefore, Reny did not forget to publicly appreciate the efficiency of the Kerala Police. During the murder, Reny’s wrist was cut with a knife. On the way back, the wound was stitched at a private hospital in Kottayam.
In 1983, the court sentenced all four of them to life imprisonment. The court very clearly said in it that “this rare case deserves death penalty. But the age of the accused and the fact that they have not been involved in the cases before, make them life imprisonment to give them a chance to improve” these words of the court later confirmed Reny’s life.
The other convicts were greeted with cheers by Mone (Son) of Madras in the jail.
The punishment method of prison is used for two purposes.
One is to keep guilty people out of society;
and secondly as a correctional home.
But the opposite is usually the case. Many people who become criminals under the pressure of circumstances become violent criminals after they go to prison.
The same is true of children’s prisons. Many people mistakenly say Durguna Remedial ( Detention centre ) School as Durguna Pathsala ( Detention centre ). That is actually what is happening there. They learn all the vices and come out as big criminals. In the West, such child offenders are sent home with a monitoring machine attached to their leg and watched by a person called a probation officer. They do the same to old criminals; House arrest, so to speak.
Will such methods of punishment reach our country?
Drugs and alcohol were readily available to the Madrasites in jail.
It is the rule of the prison that criminals who are out on parole must bring money when they come back. If they do not comply with this, many of them commit theft or murder while on parole, remembering the torture they will receive from their fellow prisoners.
Reny George alias Moan of Madras was always a headache for the jailers.
On this occasion, a local jewelry tycoon also made a film about the Karikanvilla murder, Madrasile Mon.
Reny, who was on parole for the first time, approached the producer for money and threatened her.
He took Rs 60,000 from him and went back to jail.
Reny later revealed that the jail authorities took Rs 30,000 out of it.
Every time Reny comes on parole, there is one housemaid named Gauri who gets shocked. They were always afraid that he would kill them.
Out on parole for the second time, Reny decides to rob a bank to live comfortably after her sentence. At that time he was preparing copies for it.
The mother said that while she was repairing the gas cutter, someone had come to see her. When he goes and looks, an old criminal with a full beard has come looking for him.
Reny followed him, believing that he would surely join her in the robbery.
But he took Reny to a prayer house.
He was surprised. Convert yourself? He was laughing, scornful and angry at the waste of time.
But for some reason he did not feel like leaving there.
On that day, a heinous criminal was converted there.
He was melting.
For the first time in his life, he burst into tears.
Guilt about his past life put him in a bad mood. He was changing beyond belief.
