Kerala police uncover shocking link between 5 murders: a 23-year-old’s deadly rage sparked by family debt
Investigating the motive behind Monday’s series of murders that left Kerala shaken, police said the suspect, 23-year-old Afan, allegedly killed his grandmother because she refused his demands for her jewellery; murdered his uncle and aunt for not helping during his financial crisis; then killed the woman he was in a relationship with and his 13-year-old brother, because he thought they wouldn’t be able to live without him.
Afan was taken into custody on Monday evening when he walked into a police station in Thiruvananthapuram and claimed to have killed six people across three villages in the district earlier in the day. When they went to these locations, police found that five of those he attacked were dead, but his mother, who Afan believed he had killed, was still alive and seriously injured. Afan had consumed poison after the killing spree and was admitted to a hospital.
The investigators said that he even stolen some jewellery from his paternal grandmother after she was killed and used it to repay some of his creditors before he continued with the killing spree that took place over a six-hour period.After taking the statement of the accused, police now believe a financial crisis caused by rising debt had led to him taking the decision to go on the killing spree. They also believe that he had initially planned on the entire family dying by suicide, but then abandoned that idea
The family had been burdened by huge financial liabilities. We obtained evidence showing that the family owed a debt of Rs 65 lakh to 13 people. He had planned a family suicide, but then decided to kill everyone when he thought that plan would not succeed,” Superintendent of Police (Thiruvananthapuram rural) K S Sudarsan said.
While police saw the financial crisis as the overarching reason behind the killing spree, they believed the individual murders were motivated by different reasons – he was angered by some relatives who he blamed for not helping him with his financial issues, while others, he killed because he thought they wouldn’t be able to live without him, officers said.
“The debts kept piling up. It came to a stage where it became difficult for them (the family) to continue. After murdering his grandmother, Salma Beevi, Afan stole her gold chain and repaid Rs 40,000 to various persons using the money obtained from pledging the gold. This incident in between the crimes shows that the liabilities were a factor,” the SP Sudarsan said.
According to the officer, on Monday morning, Afan strangled his mother and locked her in a room, believing she was dead, before leaving home and purchasing a hammer. With that, he headed to a nearby village where his grandmother was living alone.
