Lottery vendor murdered

Kochi: A 72-year-old man was found murdered on the verandah of a shop on Azad Road near Kaloor in the wee hours of Saturday.

The man, identified as Parameshwaran alias Paramu, is partially blind and is a lottery vendor. He was sleeping on the verandah of a shop opposite the Cherathrikavil Temple on Azad Road. The police said his head must have been smashed by a brick and a tender coconut as they found traces of brick powder and the remains of a coconut shell with blood stains.

“The brick powder was found near the body and part of a tender coconut was found in the sewage canal near the shop. There are blood stains on both these items. But forensic experts claim a person cannot be killed by hitting him with a tender coconut. Hence the items have been sent for further examination to confirm these details,” said Suneesh Babu, the assistant commissioner of Ernakulam central police, who leads the investigation.

The cops also confirmed the man’s lottery bag, which might have had money, was also stolen. Parameshwaran, who had a house on Vyloppilly Lane, had been sleeping on the verandah of the same shop for the past eight years. Being unmarried, it was Parameshwaran himself who chose to leave his house to his relatives and took up residence on shop
verandah.

The local residents said he was a popular figure on Azad Road as he always used to visit shops and houses and sell lottery tickets. It was when the shopkeeper came to open his shop that he found blood oozing out of Parameshwaran’s body and realized he had been murdered. The postmortem was conducted at the Ernakulam general hospital and the body was released to the relatives.