Kozhikode | The Kerala police on Sunday said a 26-year-old woman, whose body was found in a stream at Perambra last week, was murdered during a robbery bid.

The accused, a Malappuram native was taken into custody based on CCTV visuals, they said.

Perambra native Anu was found dead in a stream, which has only knee-deep water, on March 11. Her postmortem report cited the cause of death as drowning and also said that there were bruises on her body indicating signs of struggle. Her gold ornaments were also missing.

A senior police official from the district told PTI that the accused was identified from the CCTV footage, and a police officer was injured as the accused attempted to escape as soon as the team reached his house in Malappuram district.

"He is a history-sheeter with nearly 50 such cases registered against him. He stole a bike and was on the prowl looking for potential targets," police said.

The accused allegedly gave a lift to the woman, who was waiting for a bus to go to the medical college hospital.

"On the way, he stopped the bike at an isolated place and tried to snatch the ornaments she was wearing. We suspect that he drowned her in the stream and killed her before escaping with the gold ornaments," police said.

The gold ornaments were recovered by the police from a shop in Kondotty in Malappuram.

Further investigation is on, police said