Murder case: Two wanted by Kerala cops held

CHENNAI: A couple from Kerala detained by a team of the Government Railway Police at Egmore station on Thursday night turned out to be suspects wanted for the murder of a hotelier in Kerala, whose body parts was found in a gorge a week ago. They were handed over to the Kerala police on Friday.
The duo detained by the railway police were identified as Shibili, 22, and his friend Sharfana, 19, and were later charged with the murder of Siddique, 58, allegedly over previous enmity.Shibli, police said, was a former employee of Siddique.
Based on inputs from their Kerala counterparts, the city police said Siddique, a native of Tirur who was running a restaurant at Olavanna in Kozhikode, was reported missing on May 18.
Subsequently, his body was found dumped in a gorge along Attappady Ghat Road, packed in a cover and placed in a trolley.
After the body was found, Malappuram superintendent of police S Sujith Das told reporters that the murder is suspected to have taken place between May 18 and 19 and that a search had been launched for Shibli and Sharfana. Siddique had gone missing after an argument with Shibli, he added.
After a third suspect was detained in the case, police collected CCTV camera images of Shibli and Sharfana from Kozhikode’s Eranhipalam area. They found that Siddique’s ATM card was found used at various places after his death and around 1.5 lakh was withdrawn.
Inputs about the young couple were sent to police in neighbouring states. After receiving information that they were detained at Egmore station on Thursday night, a team from Kerala arrived and took them into custody on Friday.
Police said further details would be known after the postmortem report of Siddique’s body was released and the couple were interrogated.