Mystery still shrouds life and ‘death’ of Dr Omana

Kannur: Omana Edadan, the absconding ophthalmologist from Payyannur, who is accused of brutally killing her lover 21 years ago, has reportedly died after falling from a building in the suburbs of Malaysia, though her identity is yet to be officially ascertained.

According to Thaliparamba DSP K V Venugopal, the Malaysian high commission has published in Malayalam newspapers the advertisement with photograph of an unidentified woman who died after falling from a building in Subang Jaya, at Selangor.

“Ever since she had gone missing in 2001, after she got bail in the murder of her lover P Muraleedharan, a Payyannur-based contractor, there were rumours that she escaped to Malaysia using a fake passport. Her children have confirmed that she called them from that country just once in 2009,” he said. Moreover, her former husband and children said the photograph of the dead woman resembled Omana but this could be ascertained only through scientific examination, according to police.

Omana, who was running a clinic in Payyannur, made headlines after she was arrested in 1996 when she allegedly killed Muraleedharan by injecting poison in the retiring room of Ooty railway station on the night of July 11, 1996, and chopped the body into pieces with the precision of a surgeon and stuffed the same in a suitcase to throw it in a river.

However, the driver of the taxi she hired to go to Kodaikanal for the purpose grew suspicious and alerted the police, which resulted in her arrest.

On interrogation, she said she decided to kill her lover, who was already married, because she felt he was drifting away from her. Though the Ooty West police registered the case and filed the chargesheet on June 15, 1998, she got the trial process delayed by demanding the copies of the chargesheet and other documents in English or Malayalam.

Meanwhile, she managed to get bail on January 21, 2001 before the trial could begin, and nobody has heard of her since January 29, 2001.

The 64-year-old doctor, against whom the Interpol had issued a red corner notice in 2007, is still in the list of most wanted criminals from India. To ascertain the identity of the dead woman, Tamil Nadu police will have to go for the scientific examinations, including the DNA test.


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