UK triple murder: Kerala nurse strangled by husband, says family, seeks monetary aid to bring bodies back

Anju Asokan, 40, and her children, a boy aged six and a girl of four, had died after being found with injuries in England’s Northampton region Thursday. Police had taken into custody her husband, Saju, 52, who hails from Kerala’s Kannur district.

Her father Asokan told reporters in Kottayam that police from Northampton informed him in the early hours of Saturday about Anju’s death. “They told me that she was strangled to death as per the post-mortem report. The autopsy of the children will be carried out on Saturday. Her husband Saju was taken into police custody. The UK police informed me with the help of a translator,” he said.

A daily wage labourer at Vaikom in Kottayam, Asokan said the family wanted to bring the bodies back home. “I was told that it would cost Rs 30 lakh. I have no money. I have pleaded with the state and the central governments to facilitate the repatriation of the bodies,’’ he said.

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Anju was working for the National Health Service at Kettering General Hospital. She moved to the UK in 2021 along with her husband Saju, a driver. In June, the children were also taken there.

Before moving to the UK, Anju had worked in Saudi Arabia as a nurse for seven years. “Then she was working at a hospital in the Saudi Arabia region facing threats from Houthi rebels from Yemen. So, she returned to Kerala. After the children grew up, she decided to resume her nursing profession and flew to the UK last year. Saju also joined her as a driver, but later he lost his job,’’ said Asokan.

Anju’s mother Krishamma told reporters that Saju used to assault her daughter when she worked in Saudi Arabia. “I had stayed with the couple when they were in Saudi. On many occasions, I had witnessed the torture, but Anju pleaded me not to inform her father about it,” she said.

Anju met Saju in Bengaluru where she had worked as a nurse for three years. Saju was then working with a travel firm. He met Anju at her hospital, when she was on duty at the bedside of his friend’s mother. They married in 2012.