In another incident that bears similarities to mystery mass deaths in the past months in the vicinities of Hazaribagh and Burari, bodies of four members of a family have been discovered in a pit behind their home in Vannapuram in Idukki district. The incident came to light after relatives and police officials discovered the bodies three days after the family went missing from Kambakakanam in Mundanmudi area of Vannapuram, 70 kilometres from Kochi.
K Krishnan (50), a farmer by profession, his wife Susheela (47), daughter Arsha Krishnan (21) and son Arjun Krishnan (17) had gone missing from their home in Kambakakanam on July 30. On August 1, the local milkman came to the house on his daily rounds and found several blood stains in the front verandah. He then alerted the neighbours and police officials, who searched the area and stumbled upon a pit at the back of the house that looked recently filled. They discovered four bodies stacked on top of each other after they decided to dig the pit.
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“The father had a rubber plantation but also appeared to have practiced witchcraft. We still have not been able to find the cause and means of death. We are probing all angles to the death, including witchcraft”, police sources informed NDTV.
Two of the bodies had been identified as that of the two children whereas the other two bodies are most likely to be that of their parents an official at the Kaliyar police station confirmed. “The bodies certainly don’t look very old. From what we understand, the family wasn’t very friendly with the neighbours. It’s too early to say what may have happened to this family,” asserted an officer.
A local television news channel reported that a person who helped in digging the pit observed injury marks on each of the bodies pointing to a murder angle to the incident.