Kochi: The body of a woman, with a huge boulder tied to it, was recovered from Periyar river in Aluva on Wednesday. The police has registered a murder case and started a detailed probe.
The body of the woman, in her early thirties, was first found by students of the Vincentian Vidhyabhavan Seminary near UC College at a nearby bathing ghat at 9.30 pm on Tuesday.
The body was wrapped tightly with several bedsheets. Only her decomposed hand was protruding out. Though senior police officers reached the spot late on Tuesday, they couldn't conduct the inquest in the dark and postponed the procedures to the next day.
"It's a case of clear murder. We suspect involvement of more than one person. The woman's mouth was stuffed with a shawl, probably with that she was wearing, indicating she was choked to death.
There are signs of her being subjected to physical assault as there were injury marks on her lips and both her legs were found twisted. Further it was tied with a big boulder and concrete pieces so that it remains sunk," said a senior police officer.
As per preliminary autopsy report, the body is three days old. The cops suspect that the killers might have choked her to death or made her unconscious, carried the body to Mangalapuzha bridge and threw into the waters.
A case for murder (Indian Penal Code Sec tion302) was registered with the Aluva East Police.
"The boulders and concrete pieces weighed nearly 40 kg. The woman has a height 154 cm and wore leggings and T-shirt. The body might have popped up after getting trapped in a bush in the river close to the shore in strong undercurrents," they said.
Though the cops collected details of missing women, it yielded no result.
