Kerala police secures custody of suspected nun killer

Kottayam: Kerala police Friday secured custody of a man arrested by Uttarakhand police on the suspicion that he is the killer of an elderly nun at Pala in the district, a senior police officer said here.

A police team from Kerala, which reached Haridwar today, secured custody from Uttarakhand Police of one Satheesh Babu, against whom a lookout notice was issued by Kerala police for allegedly killing 69-year-old sister Amala at her Lisieux Carmel Convent room in Pala on September 17, police said.

He is expected to be brought to Kerala by tomorrow morning after securing a transit warrant, Kottayam District Police Chief Satish Bino said.

Police said from the initial questioning of the arrested person by the Kerala police team headed by Pala DySP Suneesh Babu, it is confirmed that he is Satheesh Babu--the suspected killer of the nun.

Satheesh Babu, a native of Kasargod, was arrested from a guest house of an Ashram at Haridwar on Wednesday night after Kerala police gave a specific input about his presence there.

Kerala police who had put mobile phones of Satheesh's relatives and friends under surveillance came to know from a message received by his elder brother from Haridwar that the murder accused was camping at the guest house of an Ashram.

Kerala police immediately passed on information regarding Satheesh Babu's crime to Uttarakhand police and he was held from the Ashram guest house, police said.

Claiming a breakthrough in the sensational murder of the nun, police had said yesterday that they have identified Satheesh Babu, a habitual drunkard, as the murderer.

His photographs were also released to media by police.

Police, which conducted the probe with the help of its cyber cell, suspect that Satheesh Babu is a serial offender targeting convents.

Sister Amala was found dead in a pool of blood in her convent room. A deep injury with a sharp edged weapon on her back and minor wounds were found on her forehead, police had said.