Thiruvananthapuram, 27 January (HS): Not a single day passes in Kerala without reports of murder and mayhem from across the State. Monday morning saw a 76-year-old mother Lakshmi and her 55-year-old son Sudhakaran getting hacked to death in broad daylight by their neighbor Chenthamarai who was out on bail for murdering Sudhakaran’s wife Sajitha in 2019.

Last week, Munampam, a coastal town in Ernakulam was shocked by the triple murder of a father (Venu-65), wife (Usha-62) and daughter Vinisha (32) allegedly by Rithu Jayan (27) who himself claims to be suffering from a mental disorder. He has been arrested and put into judicial custody. Vinisha’s husband who was grievously injured in the attack is still in critical condition.

The modus operandi of Rithu was like this. He would murder or maim his victims and when the police swoop on him, he would show them a medical certificate issued by a Government doctor claiming that he is a psychiatric patient. In the triple murder case, the police found that Rithu never had any psychiatric case and the certificate was a manufactured one.

One has lost count of the number of murders happening across the State daily which has reached alarming proportion. Though the Opposition claims that the law and order in the State has suffered a major set back, the CPI(M)-led Kerala government scoffed it off and said that the opposition was in a state of “hallucination”.

Murders and rapes have become routine incidents in Kerala. The State is on its way to emerging as the crime capital of the country thanks to the inefficiency of the law enforcing machinery. The last couple of months saw an unprecedented increase in the number of gang wars which were till now limited to Mumbai.

Hindusthan Samachar / Manohar Yadavatti