Kurup: Chapter 2

NOTE: This story is based on real-life incidents that took place in Kerala, and it’s a sequel to Kurup: Chapter 1.

On January 22, 1984, in Kollakadavu village in Kerala, an ambassador car was found burned in between the fields, and a fully burned body was also there. The police found it was Sukumaran Kurup’s. But it was not an accident.

When they learned that Sukumaran Kurup had been murdered, DSP Haridas started investigating his friends and family. His police team started observing the activities of Sukumaran Kurup’s family in secret. Since DSP Haridas already had doubts about their family’s security, He brought Bhaskaran Pillai to the police station.

Haridas started investigating Sukumaran Kurup. When they were investigating, Bhaskaran Pillai said, “Sir. Sukumaran Kurup may have had enemies when he was in Saudi Arabia." He said, “They might have murdered him.”

But when this investigation was going on, DSP Haridas felt that Bhaskaran Pillai’s behaviour was not right. He felt that he was hiding something. Whenever the police asked questions, Bhaskaran Pillai was in a panicked state. Even though he was supportive of the whole investigation, the way Bhaskaran Pillai talked made the police think that he was hiding something.

Most importantly, Bhaskaran Pillai was continuously checking his full sleeve, and he kept on adjusting it down. DSP Haridas, who was noticing it, understood that there was something wrong in his hand.

DSP Haridas asked, “Why are you adjusting your sleeves down continuously? What are you hiding in your hand?”

Bhaskaran Pillai was panicked, and DSP Haridas checked what was under his sleeve. He came to know that there were a lot of fire wounds in his hands. There were a lot of burns on both his hands. Seeing this, DSP Haridas began to suspect Bhaskaran Pillai more. Immediately, he arrested him and started investigating what had happened.

Bhaskaran said, “I turned on the stove to heat some water, sir. That’s when I accidentally burned myself.”

Hearing this, the police decided to check Bhaskaran Pillai’s house. When they were checking the house, in a small hut behind the house, there was a mark of burning something. But the police understood that it was not a place to put hot water.

To know what they burned there, DSP Haridas asked the forensic team to come there and take Bhaskaran Pillai to the police station again. When they investigated in their style, Bhaskaran started telling all the truth after coping for some time. Bhaskaran Pillai accepted that he killed Sukumaran Kurup.

“I also wished to go somewhere foreign, sir. So I gave some money to Sukumaran Kurup and asked him to arrange me a job. But even after these many years, he kept on cheating me. Whenever I asked him, he kept on giving reasons. So there was a misunderstanding between both of us. That’s why I planned and burned him in his car.” Bhaskaran Pillai accepted that he was the killer.

Hearing this, the police were shocked. They thought they had found that it was not an accident case. All the police officers in the station were happy. Even though he wanted to confirm his statement, the burned hand gloves from the car and the hair inside them were sent to check whether they matched Bhaskaran Pillai’s hair sample.

At the same time that the investigation was going on, DSP Haridas thought that he should investigate Sukumaran Kurup’s friends. On January 6, 1984, when Kurup came to Kerala, they started investigating who he went out with. During the investigation, Haridas came to know that Kurup spent time with Bhaskaran Pillai, Shahu, who was working in Saudi Arabia with him, and taxi driver Ponnappan. His team found that he had spent most of the time with three of them.

Haridas learned that Shahu and Ponnappan went missing. DSP Haridas thought, "Definitely, there is no chance for Bhaskaran Pillai to do this alone. He can’t be able to do this alone.” He thought that someone might have helped him. He immediately asked his investigation team to search for Shahu and Ponnappan. After searching for a few minutes, they found taxi driver Ponnappan and arrested him.

(Now the police team that was investigating Ponnappan doesn’t know that; what Ponnappan is going to say is a very big matter, and it’s going to change the angle of this case.)

When the police were investigating taxi driver Ponnappan and heard the statement he gave to the police, the whole police team was confused. At the same time, shocking news came to DSP Haridas. He got a mysterious phone call.

When he attended the phone call, the things that he came to know frustrated him.

("Where is this case going? How many twists are still there in this case?” It created confusion, which made them crazy. Because of the unbelievable twist, which he was not expecting, the member who talked on the phone said to DSP Haridas: Who is the mysterious person who talked on the phone to DSP Haridas? What did he say on the phone that made DSP Haridas crazy? What was the statement given by Ponnappan that changed the angle of the case? Then is it true that Bhaskaran Pillai killed Sukumaran Kurup? With an answer to all these questions, how did this case move to the next stage? Let’s see it.)

When the investigation team was investigating taxi driver Ponnappan, he gave an important and confusing statement. This was the first twist given by Ponnappan.

On the night of January 21, 1984, taxi drivers Ponnappan, Shahu, and Bhaskaran Pillai were going in the car at night. When they were going, they accidentally hit someone, and the person died in that accident. In panic, without knowing what to do, he said that they burned him in Sukumaran Kurup’s car.

Hearing this statement, Haridas couldn’t understand anything. Bhaskaran Pillai gave a statement, and in that, he said he planned and burned Sukumaran Kurup. The evidence was also in favour of his statement. But now taxi driver Ponnappan was saying something else.

Haridas, who heard everything clearly, thought that there was another problem with this. When he was investigating it further, DSP Haridas received an anonymous phone call. When he spoke on that call, he had doubts about Bhaskaran Pillai’s statement.

The news that shook the whole case was known to Haridas in this phone call. The person who spoke on the phone said, “I am Sukumaran Kurup’s relative.”

But he didn’t mention the name and said, “Like you think Sukumaran Kurup didn’t die. The body that you gave us to bury behind the house was not Sukumaran Kurup’s.” He hung up the call.

After hearing all this, the investigation team was confused. The statement given by Bhaskaran and taxi driver Ponnappan, and the mysterious phone call The investigation team thought about what all this was indicating. At that time, they had doubts.

“Till now, we didn’t get any proper evidence that Sukumaran Kurup died, and the face was also not clear, only with the number plate, and since it was his car, we can’t say that Sukumaran Kurup was the one inside it, and with Bhaskaran Pillai’s statement, we can’t say that it is Sukumaran Kurup. There were no ornaments on the body, which belongs to Sukumaran Kurup. All the clothing in the body was burned. Here and there, skin was burned, and only a small piece of cloth was identified.” Haridas said this to his police team. He added, “We can’t accept all this as evidence.”

An important piece of evidence was found by the police, however. It changed the entire angle of the case. Till now, Bhaskaran Pillai, taxi driver Ponnappan, and the mysterious phone call With all this, the police had doubts. Most importantly, Haridas had a doubt. He thought, from an angle, that maybe the body found in the car was not Sukumaran Kurup’s. He asked to check whether any missing cases were filed in that area.

But in these three days, no missing cases were filed. Now the police want to know the answer to two big questions.

“If Sukumaran Kurup didn’t die, then who died? Then where is Sukumaran Kurup now? If he didn’t die, he must be here. Bhaskaran Pillai, taxi driver Ponnappan, and Shahu, Sukumaran Kurup, were roaming with these three only. But since Shahu and Sukumaran Kurup were missing, search for both of them.” Haridas said this to his investigation team.

At the same time, Haridas started investigating taxi driver Ponnappan. He asked him where he finally saw Sukumaran Kurup. For that, Ponnappan said: “On the night of January 21, 1984, I dropped Sukumaran Kurup in a lodge near the Aluva railway station, sir. It was the last time I saw him.”

By looking at this, it’s confirmed again that Sukumaran Kurup didn’t die. Haridas thought of going to the lodge and investigating. He took the photo of Sukumaran Kurup and investigated everyone there. After seeing the photo, everyone in the lodge gave a shocking answer.

The people who worked in the lodge said that they saw Sukumaran Kurup. They also said that he booked a room, stayed there, and just checked out yesterday. Since Haridas came one day late, he missed Sukumaran Kurup.

At the same time, Haridas’s police team was searching Shahu in a different place. Shahu decided to escape to Saudi Arabia via Kochi. But they blocked and arrested him in the Kochi coastal area. Even if they went on a one-hour delay, they might have missed Shahu.

Now they brought Shahu to the police station and started investigating. In the station, taxi drivers Ponnappan, Shahu, and Bhaskaran Pillai were all taken into custody. When police were investigating them, a person named Sree Kumar, who was working in Hari Talkies near Karuvatta, filed a complaint that his co-worker Chacko had been missing for three to four days at Mavelikara police station. This was informed to DSP Haridas.

When they noticed Chacko was missing, it was from the night of the accident. Haridas came to know that he was missing on the night of January 21, 1984. Hearing this, he was shocked. He felt a spark. His police team started investigating further about Chacko.

Normally, Chacko will go out of town and return home after two to three days. Since his family is used to it, they didn’t bother much about his return. But Sree Kumar knows that Chacko went home that day. Since even after three days he didn’t return home, he bought a person from Chacko’s house and made a complaint at the police station.

Knowing this, Haridas started investigating Chacko’s family. Chacko’s wife, Shanthamma, was pregnant at the time, and she was frightened about her husband’s disappearance. Even though Haridas had no choice, He has to investigate her.

By showing the photo of a burnt-dead body, Haridas asked, “Madam. Whether you could identify something?”

Since the face was fully destroyed, Shanthamma said, “I didn’t know who it was, sir.”

Now, his police team started showing the pieces of clothing they collected from the body. When they were showing, Shanthamma said, “Sir. It doesn’t look like Chacko’s.”

Finally, when they showed a piece to Shanthamma, she started crying there.

I already said that one piece of evidence is going to change the entire case. This is that evidence.

It was nothing but a piece of underwear taken from the body. All the clothing in the body was maximum burned. But an underwear piece alone was not burned. Since the body was burned in a sitting position, some part of the underwear below the body was not burned. During the autopsy, Dr. Umadathan collected and kept it, and that’s what DSP Haridas showed Shanthamma.

Seeing that, she cried and said, “It was my husband’s underwear, sir.” Hearing this, the investigation team was frozen.

“So for these many days, we thought that the body was not Sukumaran Kurup’s?” Haridas asked his teammates. Now a big question has been raised about whether the body was Chacko’s.

Even though they can’t confirm that it was Chacko’s from a piece of underwear, Haridas started searching for solid evidence. His police team got an order to do an autopsy again.

Hari and his team dug the body out of Sukumaran Kurup’s house. They thought that they could find the truth by finding evidence from the body. Dr. Umadathan did an autopsy again on that body.

Now everyone knows that it was a murder and not an accident. But they have to find who died. In India’s medical history, they did a lot of research on this. For that, Dr. Umadathan got a photo of Chacko from his wife.

After that, from the body’s bones, they framed a body. In particular, since the skull of that body was strong, the structure of the head was not collapsed. When they took the x-ray of the burnt head and compared it with the photo, the result was so shocking. The x-ray matched 100% with that photo. The face cut and jawline matched perfectly. Despite the fact that additional research was conducted to confirm it. They recreated the right leg of the body; that is, they made an artificial leg. On that right leg, some flesh was sticking to it. To create that leg again with clay, they created an artificial leg. Like an original leg, they created it.

Now with that leg, they tried to match Chacko's shoe. With that result, everyone was shocked. According to Dr. Umadathan’s research, “Chacko’s shoe perfectly matched with the artificial leg they created.” It was the third important evidence that the body was Chacko’s. From here, this was not Sukumaran Kurup’s case. It changed into the Chacko murder case.

In the 1980's, there was no advanced technology, and that too in our country. With scientific research, they brought out the truth in this type of case. For that, the investigation team, forensic team, and scientific research, in particular, created an artificial leg and did a test in a murder case. It was the first time in India. 

(With all the evidence from the research, it was scientifically confirmed that Chacko is dead.)

Now, knowing that Sukumaran Kurup didn’t die, Haridas arrested both Sukumaran Kurup’s wife and Bhaskaran Pillai’s wife. Bhaskaran Pillai, taxi driver Ponnappan, and Sukumaran Kurup’s friend Shahu were all continuously investigated.

But the question in Haridas’s mind is, "Why did Bhaskaran Pillai say that he killed Sukumaran Kurup? Why was Sukumaran Kurup, who was dropped by Ponnappan, hiding?” With the bunch of questions about whether he was really alive, the police were searching Sukumaran Kurup continuously.

Now Haridas has investigated them individually. Each one of them gave separate statements. In a few days, Shahu turned in, and Bhaskaran Pillai also started telling all the truth. Hearing the truth, the entire police station was stunned. Because the statement was crazy and different.

It was unbelievable, unexpected, and made everyone shocked. In India in the 1980's, it will feel like anyone will do something like this. The statement that the three of them gave was shocking.

EPILOGUE

If you don’t know what the case means, a thrilling crime experience is waiting for you. But please wait for it and don’t Google it. This case will definitely give you a thrilling experience. But those who already know about this case without revealing the twist will enjoy the extra details and thrill of this story. And what was the statement given by Shahu, Bhaskaran Pillai, and Ponnappan? What truth did they say? Is Sukumaran Kurup really alive? Or is he dead, like Bhaskaran Pillai said? And who really is Sukumaran Kurup? With the answer to all this question, we can see it in Chapter 3 of this story.

There are a lot of details in this case that we should know. We can decode all the master plan details of the murder case in Chapter 3.

So readers. What do you think about this case? What do you think the next twist will be? Who is Chacko, and why was he killed? If you can guess it, comment on it without googling. And if you know about this famous Kerala case already, and if you already heard about it, hit like on this story. Comment with your opinions.