A case that shook Madras in 1953, all for a pen……
The Telugu Komati Chetties had been trading in Madras for a
long time and were pretty good at it, holding privileged positions with the
British in the pre independence days, well located in the (China town) Parry’s
corner and Broadway environs of old Madras. The kothwal market or the
Kothachawady was something which owes its origin to them, so also many of the
old businesses and shops, which old timers frequented. But this is about an
unsavory character of their lot, one Alavandar who traded in pens, plastic
goods and sarees and his timely demise, if I may term it so. This Alavander, a
namesake of the great Vaishnavite philosopher, was no good man, but a
philanderer, often preying on young women. As it transpired, in the autumn
months of 1951, he chanced upon a young girl of 22, named Devaki Menon, who
visited the shop he worked in (it still exists) called Gem and Co to buy a
fountain pen. Such pens were much treasured in those days and had great value.
In this peculiar case, that pen sale was to start an amorous affair of sorts and
eventually result in the murder of this Alavandar.
The story came out in bits and pieces, during the early
months of 1953 when the case came up for trail in the hallowed Madras High
court. Newspapers feasted on the lurid, morbid and sleazy details. It was
certainly tricky, for the jurors, the judge, the police, the lawyers and the
others who assisted with the investigation. You must now remember that the
scientific facilities we have today were not available to the rudimentary
medical team in Madras during that period. X-rays, fingerprints, autopsies and
so on were not so advanced and conclusions not too easy to reach. Much of the information
on the happenings came out from the confessions (sometimes coerced) provided by
the accused and the co accused and the juries made their decisions based on
those, after the presiding judge had made his summary and opinion of the case.
The accused was Prabhakara P Menon, husband of the co
accused Devaki Menon and they lived in Royapuram. Prior to their marriage in
June 1952, Devaki was a social worker imparting Hindi tuitions and lived with
her parents in Adam Sahib St. Prabhakara Menon was an insurance clerk at the
Premier insurance Co and had since then taken up a position as the editor for
the newspaper Freedom. After marriage they settled down in a house rented from
one Yusuf Mohammed, at 62 Cemetery Rd Royapuram. The hornets’ nest was stirred
(or so it seems) when Menon wanted an advertisement in his paper and his wife
offered to help by getting an advertisement from Gem and Co. Menon accompanied
Devaki and met Alavandar who seemed overtly friendly with his wife thereby
raising suspicions in Menon’s mind about his wife’s fidelity. In fact if he had
asked around, Menon could have been more definite in his conclusions, for
Alavandar did have many such conquests to boot.
Alavandar, then 42 years old, was not debonair, but dressed
nattily, used to work in the Military department at Avadi and had taken up to
the businesses mentioned above, after premature retirement. I would assume that
he saw greater opportunities in business and soon found out that he could
easily bed many a woman he desired by offering pens, sarees and plastic vessels
and accepting their bodies in lieu or as part payment for the pens or vessels
sold.
On 29th August 1952, Inspector Ramantha Iyer was
faced by a worried looking woman claiming to be the wife of the said Alavandar,
complaining that her husband had not come home. The press took up the issue
announcing the case of a missing businessman, the following day. Iyer checked
up with Kannan Chetty the owner of Gem and Co and talked to Venkatarangan an
aspiring politician, who had been around as well as other employees who all
mentioned that Alavandar was last seen talking to Devaki Menon on the 28th
August, the previous day, before noon.
Meanwhile, on the same day, the 29th, at about
noon time, a ticket examiner boarded the 3rd class compartment of
the Indo-Ceylon boat mail at Manamadurai, a station some 60 miles from Madurai,
only to be accosted by irate passengers who complained of a stink from a
section of the compartment. Hastening to the location, he found a green steel
trunk under the seat as the source of the offending smell, with nasty blood
pools around it. The station police and station master were summoned and the
box opened. The contents were nothing short of macabre, it comprised a human
body sans its head, severed arms and legs, all swiftly rotting in the hot and
humid weather. The police were perplexed, whose corpse could this be? It
decidedly originated from Egmore station in Madras, with the train.
A quick
postmortem revealed injuries to the left side of the chest, a circumcised
penis, a black waist thread, and green socks on the feet. The police surgeon concluded
after an X-ray that it belonged to a Muslim male aged 24. As we can see, it was
a deduction far from reality. The body was moved to the local burial ground and
a watch kept, just in case, for this bit of horrid news also hit the papers.
Ramanatha Iyer reading the news the next day somehow felt
that the body in the trunk was related to the missing Alavandar. He had in the
meantime tracked down the residence of Devaki Menon in Royapuram only to be
told that the house had been vacated and the occupants had left town. He
entered to see an empty house, but with a number of blood stains on the walls
and the kitchen. Iyer was quick to round up and question a number of people in
the neighborhood and slowly the scene was recreated. A rickshaw puller Arumugam
informed that the occupant of the home, PP Menon had hired his rickshaw, was
seen carrying a pumpkin like object, which he had tossed into the Bowekuppam at
the Royapuram beach.
Iyer deducted that this tossed object must be the missing
head of the headless corpse, but then again, the head was still missing.
Proverbially, Jayarama Iyer a constable, walking along the beach chanced upon
this very head, as a wave brought it in at 4PM on Aug 31st.
Ramanatha Iyer quickly had the torso brought in to Madras and the combination
was handed over for further analysis to a medical team headed by Dr KC Jacob
and Dr CP Gopalakrishnan. They were able to establish that the head belonged to
the body after seeing that the cervical vertebrae matched at the cut and the
finger prints from the severed hands matched those of Alavandar (which were
available since he was in military service). Also the height of the body after
combining the torso with the head came up to 5’5” whereas the service record
mentioned Alvander’s height at 5’4.5”. Alavandar’s wife was called for
identification and she identified him based on his two holed right earlobe, his
black overriding upper canine tooth, his waist thread, circumcised penis and
the green socks. It also transpired during the case that Alavandar had gotten
circumcised and consumed opium, both attributed to greater sexual prowess by the
press. The stomach analysis revealed opium which Alavandar was known to take.
With this the case took a new turn, to the investigation of
the homicide of Alavander and the tracking down of the missing assailants,
presumed to be the Prabhakaran and Devaki. The police soon traced the servant
boy who worked for the Menon’s, a Coimbatore lad of 13 named KT Narayanan, who
had run away from home some months ago and come to Madras. After questioning
him (and perhaps Devaki’s father Raman Menon), they learnt that the couple had
left for Bombay via Mysore. Ramanatha Iyer drove to Bangalore and flew to
Bombay and located Prabhakara Menon at one Subedar Major Nair’s house, with
Bombay police’s help. Devaki Menon had in the meanwhile suffered an abortion
and was hospitalized. Menon was arrested on 13th Sept and Devaki later
after she was discharged from the hospital, on the 22nd. Both were
brought back to Madras.
I cannot but feel astonished at the efficiency with which
all this took place, can you imagine, in 1952, when police departments had
small budgets, less staff and depended on the ingenuity of its officers. Just
imagine - they could resort to air travel, they worked well with Bombay police
and even moved suspects by air!!
The police continued with its investigation, and identified
some 50 persons who could provide circumstantial evidence about the movements
of Alavander and the Menon’s. The police uncovered a watch and a pen from Menon
which they believed were Alavandar’s. They also found a knife in the belongings
of Devaki and traced out her blood stained sari and the Malabar knife used to
sever the head of the deceased. Menon later showed the police a location near
the beach he had hidden clothes and underwear belonging to Alavander. But the
police had no eyewitness or clinching evidence linking the Menon’s directly to
the crime except for a bloodstained palm print purporting to be Menon’s at 62
Cemetery rd. The police tried hard to get Devaki to become an approver in return
for a full pardon if she could affirm that Prabhakaran had committed a
premeditated murder, but she would not budge and continued to support her
husband who she said acted to save her honor. All the court had was their statements,
some obtained under police pressure, but which were used in the court during a
trial by jury and headed by a senior judge.
What is even more interesting is the group of people who
came together in this pursuit for justice. The presiding judge was A S
Panchapakesa Ayyar, from Palghat, a stentorian individual, while the public
prosecutor was Govind Swaminathan (brother of Lakshmi Sehgal) from Palghat
(later Calicut). The lawyers for the defense were BT Soundararajan and S
Krishamurthy. The case was soon readied and the much talked about trial was
held at the great hall in the Madras high court, just a few months later, in
March 1953. A number of people were questioned, a number of items were
introduced as evidence and a number of findings were revealed to the public, and
events were replayed in the interest of judicial correctness and for the jury
to take a note of. The arguments hovered around whether the case was
justifiable or culpable homicide, or a case or premeditated murder. It was very
important to have this right for each of them carried a very different
sentence, in severity.
Ayilam Subramania Panchapakesan Iyer had come a long way from
that small village in Palghat and had risen up the ranks to be the first ICS
officer from Madras. After education at
Oxford, he became an eminent and outspoken judge. He was author of so many
interesting books such as The Layman's Bhagavad Gita, Three men of destiny, and
his novel Baladitya is possibly the first historical romance based on Indian
History. He was never popular with the British, whom he derided often, and they
denied him promotions, keeping him as a district judge for long years. Finally,
after Independence he got his much deserved elevation as the first permanent
Indian Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.
Govind Swaminathan on the other hand, was born into an
influential family, son of Dr S Swaminathan, a leading barrister of Madras who specialized
in Criminal Law. Govind’s mother Ammu was a leading social activist later
becoming a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and an MP. Govind had
two sisters one of whom was the eminent dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai and the other
the well-known INA Capt Lakshmi Sehgal.
Not much is known about the defense counsel, perhaps they
were court appointed.
So let us now go to the High court at the Parry’s corner, a
few hundred feet away from the pen shop where Alavandar had worked, and see
what happened, as we reconstruct the events of 28th August 1952. The
judge ASP Ayyar is smartly clad in a black suit and covered with his judicial
crimson robes, the sheriff sits on his right wearing a white-laced black gown
holding a spear in his hand and to his left sits the Commissioner of Police. The
Sergeant would bellow, just as the court was to begin, mightily, “Oye! Oye!
Oye!” With that the court belonged to Ayyar, and perfect stillness would
descend in the court. The hallowed halls built of teak from Indonesia and
furniture of rosewood from Waynad were filled with people looking on….
The hearing revealed the following
The 22 year old Devaki daughter of Raman Menon lived with
her parents at Adam Saheb st, and first met Alavandar in August 1951 when she
went to Gem & Co to buy a pen. They met frequently and it appears that she
was seduced by Alavander a month later at a Broadway hotel, perhaps The Crown.
In May 1952, she met Prabhakara Menon, then working as a clerk at the Premier
insurance company. He had a reasonably good job and a company car, but soon
changed jobs and became an editor at a newspaper named Freedom. They got
married in June 1952, a month later.
A few days later, needing an advertisement, Menon meets
Alavandar who compliments him on his marriage, but raises the suspicions of
Menon who sees too much familiarity in Alavandar’s references to his wife
Devaki. Soon they move into new lodgings at 62 Cemetery road and employ
Narayanan mainly for cooking and carrying water upstairs. It is perceived that
Alavandar has been pursuing Devaki even though she was married. He apparently
demands compensation for the advertisement and takes Devaki to the Mercantile
hotel for sex, but she manages to escape, and Alavander is incensed. On that
particular day, Menon’s suspicions increase as Devaki reaches home late and he
accosts his wife and asks her if she is carrying on an affair. She initially
denies it, but admits to the previous affair with Alavandar during a movie they
go to see at the Minerva Talkies, on 27th August. The furious Menon
storms out of the theater and later at night asks his wife to bring Alavandar home
so that he could finish him off (according to the statement of Narayanan who
overheard the outburst in Malayalam – seems the boy woke up and went to pee).
A day later the Menon’s world is turned upside down by the
events which occur in rapid succession, and in a surprisingly orderly and planned
fashion, all brought to light by a quirk of fate, when the wave carried
Alavandar’s lifeless head back to shore, depositing it at the feet of Constable
Jayraman Iyer.
According to the public prosecutor - Menon plans the act of
finishing off Alavandar. He asks Devaki to bring him home on 28th
August. He absconds office that day and orders a large knife from Khader
Moideen (or another man) which is picked up around 9AM. He asks Narayanan to go
elsewhere that day and then leaves home at 10AM, well dressed, he is said to
have walked up to the nearby shop and purchased two bottles of Vimto sodas (why
Vimto – because it was crimson red?).
At 400 PM, he hires a rickshaw and proceeds to throw toss a
pumpkin shaped object into the beach dump. He also finds time to hide some
clothes under a rock near the beach (though not noticed doing so by the
rickshaw driver Arumugam).
At about 530 PM, Menon is seen again pedaling home on a
cycle carrying a large green trunk. Narayanan who has returned by then notices
that Devaki is washing some clothes downstairs, she declines offers for help.
He is later summoned to help wash the floor upstairs and smells cut flesh.
Later Menon proceeds to Egmore station in a rickshaw of one Kathavarayan, with
the green trunk. At the station he declines porter help in carrying the box
initially, but later does, with whom he deposits the object under a seat of the
Ceylon boat mail ETD 800PM, stating that this was for a friend leaving by the
train. The porter sees blood and Menon explains that he has cut his hand which
indeed is the case, for his thumb and palm are injured. The porter is paid Rs
5/- and asked to keep mum. Menon comes back, shaves off his moustache and
returns the Malabar knife to Moideen (actually there is an anomaly here for
Menon in his confession explained that he got it from somebody else).
Next day as the trunk is opened up in Manamadurai and as
Ramanathan Iyer is dealing with Alavandar’s wife’s complaint, the Menon’s busy
themselves in vacating their 62 Cemetery Rd house, transferring the goods to
Raman Menon’s (Devaki’s father) house. Later that evening they take the train
to Mysore (where Menon tries to settle his company dues from his boss) and then
Bombay, leaving the boy Narayanan behind.
The police follow the culprits to Bombay where Menon has
started to work for BICC and is living with a relative Subedar Major Nair. Devaki
seems to be pregnant and had taken ill. Menon surrenders to the Bombay police
when accosted and inspectors Clark and Jaffer book a case of homicide on him.
He is then handed over to Ramanathan Iyer who takes him back to Madras and gets
him to go over the events, while at the same time unearthing the blood stained
clothes of Alavandar.
Later the police rummage through Devaki’s possessions, find
the watch and pen belonging to Alavander as well as a knife. She is also
brought back to Madras by air after recovery, but is tight lipped.
Some more details come to light, that Devaki had visited Gem
and Co at 11AM, had a chat with Alavandar and left around noon. Alavandar
followed her in a motor rickshaw according to politician Venkatarangan,
informing his staff that he will be back in an hour. It is said that Devaki
reached home, and her husband opened the door. Fifteen minutes later Alavadar
tapped on the door, which was opened by Devaki. Alavandar went in, the door was
closed.
What happened inside 62 Cemetery road at 1230 PM on 28th
Aug 1952 after which Menon left for Egmore with the green trunk leaking blood? A
witness Anthony testified that he presumed Menon was home since he purchased
the Vimto drinks from one Chotta Saheb’s shop and that he had seen Alavandar
entering Devaki’s home after alighting from an auto rickshaw after noon.
According to the first theory based on the prosecutions
deductions, Devaki invited Alavandar home where Menon was lying in wait in the bedroom.
Alavandar arrived and proceeded to disrobe Devaki in the hall when Menon came
roaring in. A fight ensued and in the process Alavandar got stabbed (Devaki did
not witness the fight and was ordered out of the room by the enraged husband)
in his lung and liver. During the fight, Alavandar bit Menon’s hand. The
Menon’s then decided to dispose of the body and vamoose. So they hacked the
body, dismembered the head and arms, as well as a leg. Menon went out, disposed
off the head at the beach, then purchased the trunk and left it in the Ceylon
bound train. They then washed the floor and kitchen with Lux soap!! The event
was premeditated and well planned and death occurred from a frontal stab and
not ‘by chance’ during a tussle.
According to Devaki’s and Menon’s statement, Alavandar
followed Devaki home and tried to molest her and it was during that event that
Menon arrived and knocked on the door. Alavandar opened the door and Menon and
Alavandar had a fight which resulted in the events as above. The event was an
occurrence by chance precipitated by Alavandar’s molestation attempt. The
stabbing was by Alavandar’s own hand as they went down to the floor during the
fight.
At 4PM Menon left in Arumugam’s rickshaw to dispose
Alavandar’s head in the corporation dump near the Royapuram beach. The trunk
was later deposited in the Indo Ceylon mail by Menon. Menon next went to Mysore,
to settle their salary dues, then both fled to Bombay and stayed with Sub Maj
Nair, a relative of Menon, after which Prabhakaran met up with KS Alva (for a
job perhaps) and found employment with BICC British insulated cables.
The defense tried to attack Alavandar’s character, Antony’s
testimony and Narayanan’s statements, but do not seem to have dented them or created
any doubts in the mind of the jury. The judge, a stern moralist felt that Alavandar
got what he deserved and made it clear in his summary. The jury settled on
culpable homicide, not going for premeditated, and Ayyar sentenced Menon and
Devaki to seven and three years of imprisonment respectively under IPC sections
201 and 304. The public it is said, felt that ASP Ayyar had sided with the
couple because they were from Malabar, but failed to notice that the public
prosecutor was also from Malabar.
It is believed that the couple went back to Kerala after
release and set up a small business. Nothing more is known about them and the
memories of the case faded. Randor guy (Madabhushi Rangadorai) wrote about the
case, talked often about it and made a television serial based on this story. The
medical analysis and its use in conviction ushered a new era of police forensics,
while the jury system continued for another 6 years until it was disbanded
after the notorious Ahuja – Nanavati case, which I had written about earlier.
In summary, it was diabolic and well timed in execution, for
a plan made just the day before. Menon had approximately three hours between
1230 and 330PM to kill and dismember Alavandar, who had unwittingly walked into
the trap (or as the court decided, into a crime of passion). The killing was
done with a smaller knife puncturing the lung and liver though I believe
Alavandar was not yet dead but was stabbed, in mortal danger and bleeding
profusely. He was dead only after his head was loped off. To slice off one’s
head with a cleaver is not easy, that too for a novice like Menon, but the cut
was neat which is surprising (or else the forensic doctor would not have been
able to match the cervical vertebrae). Then again it is very difficult to cut
through sinew, bone and muscle if you were not a butcher. To remove two hands
and a leg off a writhing body lying on a slippery blood pooled floor of the
kitchen, while bending down, is very difficult, without expert help. It was not
done on a raised dining table or there would have been knife and blood marks on
it. Did somebody help?
The confessions make it clear that Devaki was not at the
scene of the dismembering. It is 4 PM now. After this Menon had to go and get
rid of the head and clothes (Royapuram and back 1 hr), get a trunk on his cycle
(15-30 min), go to the Egmore station, some 6 miles away by rickshaw (45 min)
and be there to load the truck into the for the Indo Ceylon mail by 630 PM. The
trunk would have leaked blood from that point until departure at 8PM and nobody
noticed or complained? Another question, why did Menon choose that train and
that too Egmore when it was so far away, why not Central station which is nearer
(perhaps to throw the police off the scent?) to Royapuram? Nevertheless, it was
all carried out in clockwork precision by a cool headed thinker, if you ask me,
which therefore leaves even more mystery behind.
I don’t know what make of pen entrapped Devaki, was it a
hero or a pilot or a waterman? I don’t know if there were more nefarious
activities goings on for it has been muttered that Alavandar was seen more
often at 62 Cemetery lane, before the murder, even after Devaki got married.
Questions have also been asked as to why all the people of the locality took
little note of the happenings or failed to talk the police about it, but well,
that’s how it was.
Royapuram continues to be a crowded place, though I am not
sure 62 Cemetery road exists. The high court is still there but the glorious carved
ceiling has been covered up with a false ceiling to support air conditioning. People
still do things they should not, keeping the court and the people who work
there, busy. Cases come and go, people are sentenced and acquitted, and Judges as
well as advocates continue their arguments and sentencing. Common people no
longer occupy the Jurors seats, for the system has been disbanded.
Ironically this would have been an ideal case for the Los
Angeles chief medical examiner and coroner Lakshmanan Satyavagishwaran, who
worked with complex cases like that of OJ Simpson’s. Lakshmanan, if you did not
know, is judge ASP Ayyar’s grandson.
References
Famous murder trials – S Rajagopalan
Defense contentions in Alavandar Case – Indian express March
12th 1953
Randor guy (Alavandar Murder case) and TV Raj articles (Murder
most foul) on the Alavandar Case
S Muthiah – Madras musings - Bodies in the trunk
Photos
Courtesy Hindu, Indian express, Randor Guy, ASP Ayyar, Wikimedia
By Yoga
Balaji - From a Digital Camera (Nikon), CC BY 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11200059
