THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Plotting murder on cues from Malayalam movies Drishyam and 96, helped the murder-couple to mislead police initially, however an unsettling move against the cops proved to be their undoing.
Police summoned Premkumar several times to take down statements in the probe on his missing wife. Seemingly irked, he approached Police Complaints Authority for an anticipatory bail - a move that led the team officers to take a closer look at him for links to the woman’s disappearance.
The murder took place on 20 September in the upper-storey of Premkumar’s rented house in Thiruvananthapuram. Though Sunita, a nurse by profession, confirmed Vidya’s death, he cut the vein on her foot for double certainty.
To avoid suspicions, the couple transported the body next day 21 Sept, in seated position inside the car with Sunita extending her arm around Vidya’s lifeless shoulders, as they travelled to Tirunelveli, where they dumped the body into a bush.
The pair then headed back en route Thenmala, halting briefly for Premkumar to collect money from a hotel there, before proceeding to reach Udayamperoor and register a complaint about his missing wife.
Sunita was inside the car all time, as Premkumar walked into the police station to lodge the complaint. Following this, the couple returned to Thiruvananthapuram.
Vidya’s disappearance failed to arouse suspicion among relatives owing to past instances when she would leave home without informing anyone. After the incident, Premkumar dumped Vidya’s phone in Mumbai-bound Netravati Express, leaving police puzzled on her whereabouts. Cops in Tirunelveli meanwhile buried Vidya’s decomposed body identified by her relatives later from photos.
Police used mobile tower location to track Premkumar’s Tirunelveli visit in the time, he claimed he was undergoing Aryurvedic treatment in Thiruvananthapuram. The location technique however indicated Vidya proceeding to Mangaluru at that time, going by the mobile phone in train transit..
Confirming identity of the Vidya’s body at Tirunelveli gave cops the lead they were looking for. At that time, after a live-in stint lasting two months, Premkumar and Sunita fell apart the latter moved out into a rented house alone in the city. The arrest came when she was about to leave for Hyderabad to join her husband and two children, after quitting her job as nursing superintend in a private hospital in the city. Premkumar was nabbed while preparing to take up a job in the Middle East.
Vidya’s marriage to PremKumar was her second. She divorced the first husband a few years after marriage and has two children in that relation. Vidya and Premkumar later had two children of their own. All children are being looked after by Vidya’s mother in Cherthala.
A chance meeting at school alumni meet in Kochi last May, kindled passion between former school mates Premkumar and Sunita. After the event, the two grew closer and decided to live together and do away with Vidya. Vidya, who worked abroad arrived in September to attend her older daughter’s wedding, when the murder took place
According to sources, problems in their respective marriages wer a factor in the adulterous affair pursued by the murder couple
