The Peroorkada police on Friday recovered the alleged murder weapon used in the murder of a nursery employee at Ambalamukku. The breakthrough came a few hours before the week-long custody period of Rajendran, the accused, came to an end.
The knife was retrieved from the pipeline of an unused wash basin in the room where Rajendran used to reside at Peroorkada. An employee of a tea shop right opposite the Peroorkada police station, Rajendran was accommodated on the first floor of the same building.
The last-ditch effort was made by the police on a suspicion that arose after the accused claimed to have discarded certain items after the murder in a trash bin in the room. It took the sleuths nearly one-and-a-half hours to recover the knife from the pipe.
The collection of evidence was made under high security, with the police struggling to ensure Rajendran’s protection from a mob that had gathered in the area. One person who attempted to assault the accused was detained by the police.
The accused had earlier claimed to have ditched the murder weapon in a pond at Muttada and later in an abandoned house nearby. His claims also led the police as far as Tirunelveli where the investigators made another futile attempt following a search operation conducted in his lodge room.
While the retrieval of the weapon has firmed up the prosecution’s case, the police have been unable to locate a locket that belonged to the victim, Vineetha. While her gold necklace had been recovered from a pawn shop at Anjugramam, the locket has been untraceable. Rajendran had claimed to have hid it in a pipe in his lodge room.
