The man, who was arrested on Wednesday for attempting to murder a woman employee of a Ravipuram-based travel and recruitment agency in broad daylight, had planned to target the owner of the firm, police said.
The Ernakulam South police on Tuesday arrested Jolly James, 47, of Palluruthy, for allegedly slitting the throat of the Thodupuzha woman while she was on duty at the firm. He took shelter in a nearby hotel before being taken to the hospital. He is now admitted in a private hospital due to serious throat injuries.
“The accused had come up with a plan to attack the agency owner. He had also bought a new knife for the purpose, and it was recovered from the crime scene,” said police sources.
According to the police, the accused has claimed that he paid ₹1.50 lakh to the agency for the Lithuanian visa. However, it did not materialize due to the pandemic. The accused claimed that the agency returned only ₹1 lakh, and that he was repeatedly demanding repayment of the remaining ₹50,000 with the agency.
However, the proprietor Mohammed Ali, who has reportedly been running the agency for over a decade, refuted the claims. According to him, he had refunded the entire service fee of ₹35,000 to the accused, and nothing is owed to him now.
“We have to verify the claims of the owner. We will also seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation and collection of evidence, police sources said.
The accused has been booked under IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 450 (trespassing house in order to commit an offence).
Meanwhile, in the wake of the incident, the city police has intensified operations focusing on educational counseling and job and manpower counselling. “We are collecting details of such consulting firms at the police station level and verifying their credentials well in advance of the incident. Kochi City Deputy Commissioner S. “We launched it a few months ago after seeing a large number of fraud cases from such firms,” Sasidharan said.