Pathanamthitta (Kerala): If there was ever a place where the pious hope of “rest in peace” seems to be violated, it is Mallappally in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district.
The quiet town has found itself grappling with an unusual crime wave that has left both parishioners and police scratching their heads: graveyard thefts.
The first complaint surfaced last week from a Mar Thoma Church after members discovered that the granite slab covering a family grave had mysteriously disappeared.
Measuring nearly six feet by three feet and costing upwards of Rs 10,000, the slab was hardly the sort of item one could slip into a backpack.
Police registered a case and began searching for what is perhaps Kerala’s most unlikely criminal, a granite grave thief.
Before investigators could make much headway, the mystery deepened.
On Tuesday morning, members of another nearby Mar Thoma parish woke up to an eerie sense of deja vu.
Yet another granite slab had vanished from a grave in the church cemetery, suggesting that the first incident was no isolated act.
“This is not a one-man job,” remarked a parishioner. “You need at least four people to lift and carry a slab of that size.”
That observation has only added to the intrigue.
If true, the thefts were not the handiwork of an opportunist but of a well-coordinated team willing to enter cemeteries under the cover of darkness and walk away with hundreds of kilograms of polished granite.
For the police, the investigation is proving anything but straightforward.
Neither cemetery is equipped with CCTV cameras, leaving officers with precious few leads and plenty of unanswered questions.
The incidents have sent ripples through churches across Mallappally.
Alarmed by the bizarre thefts, several parishes have already begun discussing the installation of surveillance cameras to keep a watch over their cemeteries.
In a town where the departed were expected to rest in peace, even the dead now appear to need security.
It seems that in Mallappally, death comes with a granite problem.
(IANS)
