The police have formally arrested 11 of the 12 people they had been interrogating for the murder on Friday night of Paul George Muthoot, 30, senior director of the prominent Muthoot M George business group, and also son of the Chairman. The arrests were formally made today; at the time of reporting, the 11 had yet to be produced before a magistrate. The twelfth man under interrogation has been let go.
In addition, it now appears, say police sources, that two men with a long criminal record, Omprakash and Rajesh, were travelling with the murdered man. Both are missing and the police are hunting for them. A formal lookout notice has been issued for Omprakash, who has business links in Dubai.
The story of what happened that night is not complete, with the police yet to share all the details of what they have. However, the police team says the murder was not a planned one. They say the 11 arrested men were a criminal gang, including people who had killed earlier; they were going towards Alappuzha in two Tempo Traveler vans to execute a ‘quotation killing’. At midnight, near a place called Ponga, one of the vans got a puncture in its tyres.
While fixing a new tyre, the Ford Endeavour vehicle in which Paul was travelling collided with a motor bike near the van. Paul did not stop and to help the bike rider, the criminal gang chased the Ford. They stopped it forcefully and assaulted Paul and his friends. In the process, one of the criminals stabbed Paul on the back more than once and also stabbed his friend, Manu, though not fatally. Both Paul and Manu were found on the roadside by Paul’s driver, who was following them in another car. The Ford vehicle was found, abandoned, on Sunday morning, 40 km away.
This is the story at present; Manu is in hospital, but the police isn’t revealing what he’s told them of the events. Or about what the two criminals were doing with Paul in the vehicle and then after. The probe is continuing.
As reported earlier, the Muthoot group is a major player in the financial services business in Kerala and has been expanding to other parts of the country. It has also diversified into other lines of business, including information technology, plantations, metals, media and hotels. The murdered man had recently taken charge of Muthoot Leisure and Hospitality, the hotels and resorts business.
