Kerala woman's decomposed body found days after she went missing, man arrested

The body of the woman, identified as Vijayalakshmi, was recovered from near the house of a 50-year-old man named Jayachandran, a resident of Karoor, Ambalapuzha in Alappuzha.

In Short

• Man allegedly killed woman on suspicion of affair with someone
• He buried her body behind his house, planted saplings to mislead police
• Police tracked down woman after finding her phone on state transport bus

The decomposed body of a 48-year-old woman, who went missing from Kerala's Karunagappally on November 6, was recovered on Tuesday from a pit, police said.

The body of the woman, identified as Vijayalakshmi, was recovered from near the house of a 50-year-old man named Jayachandran, a resident of Karoor, Ambalapuzha in Alappuzha. Police have arrested Jayachandran on murder charges.

Preliminary investigation has revealed that Jayachandran allegedly killed Vijayalakshmi over suspicion that she was in a relationship with another person.

After the murder, he allegedly removed her gold ornaments and buried her body in the premises of his property when the neighbourhood was virtually deserted as people had gone to a nearby temple to celebrate a local festival, police added.

Jayachandran discarded her phone on a state transport bus and the police tracked her after discovering her phone. The cellphone, found switched off by the bus conductor, was handed over to the police. He confessed after police analysed the phone’s tower location and call records.

According to the police, Jayachandran invited Vijayalakshmi to his house on November 6. An argument broke out between them, resulting in the alleged murder. He then buried her body in a pit just five meters behind his house and planted three coconut saplings there in an attempt to conceal the crime.

The body was recovered after two weeks in an advanced state of decomposition, with the face disfigured. The woman's body was shifted to Alappuzha Medical College for postmortem.

Police are now probing how Jayachandran committed the murder in a crowded locality and are checking if there were other people involved in the crime.