Body of hotelier found in trolley bags in Kerala; 2 held in Chennai
Tirur police said the body was found cut into two halves, and the torso was in one trolley bag while the lower part was in the other.
Shibili; Sharfana
CHENNAI: A man and a woman from Kerala who were detained by the Railway Police at Egmore railway station on Thursday night were handed over to Kerala Police on Friday for their involvement n the murder of a hotelier in Kerala, whose body parts were stuffed in a suitcase and dumped in a gorge a week ago.
Police sources said that the railway police were initially not aware of the crimes allegedly committed by the man, Shibili (22) and his female friend, Sharfana (19) and had detained them based on an input from their counterparts in Kerala.
The deceased, Siddique (58) is a native of Tirur and was running a restaurant at Olavanna, Kozhikode. His family members had reported him missing since May 18. Subsequently, his body was found in a gorge along the Attappady ghat road. Apart from Shibili and Sharfana, Kerala Police have also detained another person.
Tirur police said the body was found cut into two halves, and the torso was in one trolley bag while the lower part was in the other.
Malappuram Superintendent of Police S Sujith Das told the media that the hotel owner is suspected to have been murdered by Shibili, a former employee of his hotel, and Sharfana, a female friend of the accused.
"We suspect that Shibili and his female friend Sharfana are involved in this. They were absconding but were detained in Chennai with the help of railway police," he said. Police said that the information about the body was revealed by a third person under custody, who is another friend of Shibili.
"As per our preliminary investigation, the death happened between May 18 and 19. Hence, the body is estimated to be around seven days old. It seems like the murder happened due to some personal issues," police said.
Police have collected CCTV images of the suspect from Kozhikode's Eranhipalam area.
Meanwhile, a close relative of the deceased told the media that Siddique had settled the accounts with Shibli on May 18 and later went missing.
"Siddique was using an ATM card in the name of his younger son. It has been found that after he went missing, the card was used at various places, and around Rs 1.5 lakh was withdrawn," the kin told the media.
Police said that the details of the murder and the motive behind it would be revealed only after the post-mortem and the interrogation of the accused.