In June 2011, Salim, an NRI businessman from Varkala, returned to his hometown to oversee the construction of his house. On July 9, he left in his car, telling his family he was going out to hire some workers. He never returned.
The family lodged a police complaint. As the investigation made little headway, they moved a habeas corpus petition, following which the court directed an officer not below the rank of DySP to probe the case.
Soon, the police began examining Salim’s call detail records (CDR), hoping to find clues to his last movements. One number stood out. The caller had been in frequent contact with Salim in the days before he went missing.
Tracing the number only deepened the mystery. “Its owner could not be identified, and the passport copy used to obtain the SIM card turned out to be fake,” recalls Armed Police Battalion Commandant K E Baiju, who then led the investigation as a DySp.
Throughout the investigation, one of Salim’s friends, Sherif, stood by the family and cooperated with the police. However, since he had been in constant touch with Salim, investigators examined his call records too.
“An analysis revealed a crucial clue — the CDRs of Sherif and the mysterious SIM card showed overlapping locations,” the IPS officer added.
Officers began looking more closely at Sherif’s activities. They learnt that he had recently hired workers to dig a pit on his property, ostensibly to dispose of toilet waste.
“He had also consulted doctors about insomnia and bought sleeping pills. More curiously, he had reportedly sent his family members away from home on the day Salim went missing,” says Baiju.
Individually, these details may have seemed unrelated. Together, they pointed towards Sherif.
Summoned for questioning, Sherif eventually admitted to killing Salim. He initially claimed to have thrown the body into the sea, but the police were not convinced.
On further grilling, he revealed what had really happened.
“Back in the day, handwritten passports were issued from Kozhikode. The accused somehow got hold of one, erased the details and placed a Bangladeshi man’s photo on it,” says Baiju.
“A copy of that was used to get a new SIM. Using it, Sherif contacted Salim, and even facilitated interactions with some women.”
The murder had been carefully planned. On July 9, Sherif invited Salim home for a few drinks. “The drink was served with ice cubes laced with powdered sedative. Salim dozed off and was killed. His body was dismembered into 16 pieces, packed in plastic bags brought from Saudi Arabia and buried behind the house,” says Baiju.
Sherif had help from another friend, Sanober, who helped plan the murder and arranged the plastic bags. “Both men owed money to Salim. When he demanded repayment, Sherif decided to eliminate him,” says the officer.
The trial ended with Sherif, the first accused, being sentenced to death. Sanober was awarded life imprisonment and fined `10 lakh.
Sherif remains in prison, while Sanober was released after nearly eight years, police officers said.
With no eyewitness to the murder, the investigation rested on circumstantial evidence. The fake SIM, overlapping mobile phone locations, sleeping pills and the newly dug pit eventually helped piece together the crime.
The court commended the investigation led by Baiju, and he later received the Badge of Honour for Detective Intelligence. “I must say that the case was a landmark one in my career,” he says.