Thiruvananthapuram, Feb. 9 -- On the morning of January 30, Udaya Jayesh, a newly elected ward member in Mullurkara panchayat in Thrissur district, recalled receiving a phone call from an acquaintance. He told her that something was amiss about a family of three elderly sisters residing in her ward.

"I rushed there to find the gate of their home shut. The morning newspaper was still lying on the front porch. We knocked and called out to them, but there was no response. That's when I called the police," Udaya told HT over the phone.

A few minutes later, a police team reached the spot and entered the house to find the three elderly inhabitants, aged 75, 80 and 83 unconscious and cold. Two of the sisters were found lying on the bed in one ...