Kochi: The fifth accused in the case of blackmailing the NRI, Jayachandran, who was arrested from near the Thiruvananthapuram MLA Quarters recently, was the manager of an event management company based in Kochi and acted as the middlemen between the sex racketeers and the rich clients using his contacts.
The 44-year-old, a native of Panath House, Paravoor, Alappuzha, was subjected to interrogation the whole day on Friday and produced before the court late in the day.
He was the neighbour of the first accused Bindya Thomas and was helping the gang meet up with rich and influential people. It is learnt that the cops mainly tried to find out his alleged links with those he had introduced to the accused women. The four accused, Bindya, Ruksana, Sanilan and Prajeesh, were earlier given bail by the court which found the charges under IT Act too weak. The four had claimed that the police was cooking up the story and making them scapegoats in a real estate-based incident.
However, M R Ajithkumar, range IG, refuted the charges and said the case was proceeding in the right direction. The cops have received only the complaint of the two NRIs so far.
Earlier, a four-member team led by Ernakulam North sub-inspector Honey K Das was sent to the capital after tracing the mobile signals of the accused. The team stayed in Thiruavanathapuram for three to four days and found that the accused was a regular visitor and stayed at the MLA hostel for two to three days.
“We first tracked down his two close aides, Murthy and Sunil Kottarakkara. Upon questioning them, we received more information about Jayachandran, that he used a white Scorpio car to flee the state. Based on that information, the police informed all the police stations to trace the car. Later, we found him inside the car at Parassala, based on the information obtained from the local police,” police said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police R Nishanthini said the speculation of the accused being arrested from the MLA hostel was baseless.
“The police arrested him from Parassala, the rest of the news reports have no grounds. Though he has been remanded, we will seek his police custody from the magistrate for further probe into the case,” she said.
The accused was produced before the first class judicial magistrate’s house on Friday night after a six-hour long questioning session held at Ernakualm North Circle Inspector office.
