Two women arrested after decade-long hunt

Kannur: After a decade-old manhunt, crime branch on Saturday arrested two women from their hideout in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, in the 2016 robbery and murder of an elderly woman in Kannur. The arrested have been identified as Parveen Banu (55), and her daughter Sakkeena Fathima (32), both natives of Nangloi in New Delhi. Banu's son, the third accused, is still absconding. The accused were absconding after the murder of Meradan Kunjamina (60), of Siddique Nagar under Irikkur police station limits in Kannur, on April 30, 2016.The crime branch team led by superintendent of police P Balakrishnan Nair traced them in Ujjain and arrested them with local police's support. The accused were produced in Kannur court and remanded in judicial custody. Police will seek their custody for further investigation.The trio had rented a house near Kunjamina's residence, posing as textile traders, said police. They befriended and gained her trust with an intention to commit the crime. On the day of crime, they invited Kunjamina to their house and attacked her with deadly weapons.The elderly woman suffered multiple stab injuries on neck, chest and abdomen. After ensuing her death, the accused fled the scene with her gold chain weighing around two-and-half sovereigns, a bangle and cash, said police.Local police initially probed the case registered at Irikkur. It was handed over to state crime branch in 2024.Police said the women were involved in a similar crime registered in Andhra Pradesh. However, they managed to secure bail there and fled to Kerala."The accused were vigilant to evade arrest. They rented houses with fake documents and obtained SIM cards by using others' documents. In Kannur, they rented the house using fake names of Soumya Rangavala and Sameera Rangavala. They also changed locations frequently," said police.After Kunjamina's murder, they stayed at various places in Kannur, Kasaragod, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram. They also moved to other states — Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi — to evade arrest. The women are fluent in multiple languages, including English, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, helping them travel to various regions without being noticed, said police.