A horrific murder and focus on astral projection has caught the imagination of police and people in Kerala. Four members of a family were murdered in the high security Nanthankode area close to the Kerala chief minister's residence in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala.

The accused, Cadell Jeanson Raja, 30, was accused of murdering 58-year-old C Jean Padma, 60-year-old A Raja Thangam, his father, 25-year-old Carolyn, his sister and a 70-year-old relative of his, Lalitha. The police suspected it could have been a case of occultism and satanic worship.

Cadell Jeanson Raja, who fled the murder scene, was spotted at the Thampanoor railway station and was arrested by the Railway Police Force. The Thiruvananthapuram Police booked Cadell Jeanson Raja under the following sections of the Indian Penal Code - murder (Section 302), causing mischief by fire explosives (Section 436) and destruction of evidence (Section 201).

THE MURDER

As per the statement given to the police, Cadell admitted that he first killed his mother in the bedroom on the first floor of their two-storey house on Wednesday and said that his aunt Lalitha Jain and maid were in the house that time. He then killed his father Raja Thangam and his sister Caroline, one after another, when they returned home.

Cadell Jeanson Raja told police that he murdered his aunt Lalitha Jain in another room on Friday night. The police found it quite strange that Cadell's aunt stayed in the same house where three murders happened for three days till she was murdered. After the murders, Cadell ensured that the floor was wiped clean of blood and all evidences are wiped off. The police said that Cadell bought a machete, that he used to murder his family memebrs, online.

Cadell Jeanson Raja went around the town swiftly, evading the police post the murders. Cadell lived in his house for another three days with the bodies and told neighbours that others in the family were out on a leisure trip. Two days ago, the Thiruvananthapuram Railway police caught him roaming around the railway station premises.

PROXIMITY TO CHIEF MINISTER'S RESIDENCE

Raja's house in Thiruvananthapuram's Nanthankode, where he brutally murdered four of his family members with a machete, is situated just 650 metres from Cliff House, the official residence of Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The area, hence, is usually under high security.

In a statement given to the local police, Cadell Jeanson Raja admitted that he killed his parents, sister and aunt while attempting "astral projection". The gruesome murder was found after the bodies were burnt and smoke started coming out.

MOTIVATION FOR THE GRUESOME MURDER

Police said that in his earlier statement, Raja talked about devil worship, but police has reasons to believe otherwise.

According to the police, the incident is a planned murder which was executed after careful planning. The motivation, police believes, is from the fact that he was a discarded element in the family.

Raja's family members were well educated and well settled. The accused was a college dropout and was sent to Australia for graduation in medicine but returned soon.

Cadell's father was a college professor, mother was a doctor and his sister Caroline had completed her medical degree from China and returned home just three weeks ago.

SATAN WORHSIP AND ASTRAL PROJECTION

Cadell Jeansen Raja told police that he is a Satan worshipper and that he sacrificed the lives of his family members as part of attempting astral projection. He said that the concept and practise of astral projection caught his attention and interested while studying artificial intelligence in Australia.

A report in The New Indian Express said, the police so much so that they consulted various psychiatrists for assistance from them to interrogate him. KE Baiju, who heads the team probing the case, said, "Cadell had an obsession with these kinds of parapsychological beliefs, including astral projection. Cadell told us he had experimented with the 'separation of the spirits' from the body. In fact, he was living in a virtual world without even going out from his residence for quite some time. However, the interrogation is on."