Kerala man who killed two wives found dead in Kedarnath

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The six-year hunt for a Kerala man accused of murdering two wives ended this week after his body was discovered in Uttarakhand’s Kedarnath. K K Premkumar, 45, had been on the run since last week when his second wife and her mother were found strangled in their Thrissur home, The Indian Express reported.

Kerala Police had been tracking Premkumar since 2019, when he was first accused of killing his first wife, Vidya (48). "Kedarnath police informed us about the death of Premkumar… We had been tracking him since last week and our two teams are already in Delhi," said Irinjalakuda Deputy Police Superintendent K G Suresh, quoted The Indian Express. The cause of death remains unclear and a Kerala Police team has been dispatched to investigate.

Premkumar, originally from Kottayam’s Kurichi, was arrested in 2019 for allegedly murdering Vidya after rekindling a relationship with a former college flame. Released on bail, he married Rekha (43) just five months ago.

On June 4, Rekha and her mother, Kaithavalappil Mani (74), were found dead in their rented Thrissur home by Rekha’s sister, Sindhu. Police confirmed both had been strangled. A recovered letter allegedly contained Premkumar’s claim that Rekha deserved to die.

Sindhu was quoted by The Indian Express as saying that the family had been unaware of Premkumar’s past. "Premkumar had told us that his first wife had died in a road accident. It was Rekha’s second marriage, too. However, it was only after the murders that the family came to know about Premkumar’s background."

In September 2019, Premkumar reported Vidya missing in Kochi. Police later alleged he had already killed her in Thiruvananthapuram with the help of his former lover - a nursing head at a private hospital.

According to The Indian Express, investigations revealed that Premkumar had taken Vidya to a villa in Vellarada, Thiruvananthapuram, on the pretext of providing medical care. There, she was allegedly murdered with the help of another woman - an old college acquaintance who was then working as a nursing head at a private hospital. According to an officer involved in the investigation, Vidya was given alcohol and strangled once she became inebriated.

The duo then transported her body to Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, placing it in a seated position in the backseat of a car and abandoned it by an isolated highway stretch. The local police cremated the body after being unable to identify it. Identification was later made possible using photographs taken prior to cremation.

Premkumar is also alleged to have attempted to mislead police by placing Vidya’s mobile phone in a Mumbai-bound train before reporting her missing.

He was arrested three months later along with the nurse who allegedly helped him. According to police, the two had rekindled their relationship in 2019 when Premkumar worked at a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram. The woman, who was married with two children and living separately from her husband, had started cohabiting with Premkumar from May 2019.

Police grew suspicious due to his lack of interest in the missing person case. "He was living with another woman and even tried to flee the country," the officer said, quoted The Indian Express.