2 held for killing Kochi doctor in Jharkhand

KOCHI:  The police on Wednesday arrested two persons for murdering K Antony, a city-based doctor who was missing since 2009. The police team took Santhosh Mehatho, 32, and Behadur Mehatho, 32, into custody from Jharkhand and brought them to Kochi on Tuesday.According to the police, Santhosh’s wife was working in the doctor’s clinic. The doctor had helped her marry Santhosh, with whom she was in love. But after their marriage, Santhosh started to suspect that his wife and doctor were having an extra-marital affair.“Santhosh admitted during interrogation that he had murdered Antony as his wife was in regular contact with the former. Antony had spoken to Santhosh about starting a new clinic in Jharkhand. But Santhosh doubted that the doctor was coming to Jharkhand to meet his wife. Thus he hatched the plot to murder Antony,” police officials said.On November 25, 2009, Antony set off for Jharkhand from Kochi. According to his family members, the doctor had told them that he was going to Jharkhand to attend a medical conference. Antony reached Bokaro on November 27, where he was received by Santhosh and Behadur at the railway station. They took him to a border area of West Bengal in a taxi,  murdered him and threw his body in an isolated location.The accused fell in the trap of the police when one of them started to use the doctor’s mobile phone. The cyber cell tracked the IMEI number and traced the location from which the phone was used.  “We could confirm that Antony was dead after examining the records of the West Bengal police. The West Bengal police said they had received an unidentified body of a South Indian with long hair. Later, when the accused started to use the mobile, we could clearly identify the persons involved in the case. The two were arrested with the assistance of the Jharkhand police,” police officials said.The accused were produced before the judicial magistrate on Wednesday and remanded.