THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: By the time one-and-a-half-year-old Arshid was found dead at a house in Nedumangad, the warnings had been piling up for years.
An ex-wife who is under treatment after repeated assaults, with her family claiming to have filed complaint after complaint. A grandmother who says she begged the police to look into the injuries of a toddler whose arms had mysteriously been fractured. Allegations surrounding another young woman’s death. Neighbours who now speak of disturbing incidents that, in hindsight, appear impossible to ignore.
Yet, despite the red flags, Ashkar remained a free man. Long before Arshid’s death shocked the state, allegations of violence had already surfaced against the accused. His first wife, Aamina, and her family allege that she endured relentless abuse during their marriage. According to her mother, Shajeela Beevi, the family approached police multiple times, detailing incidents of assault and torture.
The family’s association with Ashkar began in 2022 when he married Aamina, a native of Palode. Since then it has been a cycle of abuse, she says.
Speaking to the media after Arshid’s murder came to light, Shajeela alleged that Ashkar and his mother and sister began harassing Aamina soon after the marriage. The demands were of money, gold, and a house. She alleges that her daughter was routinely beaten inside the house. On one occasion, neighbours reportedly alerted the family about the severity of the violence. When Aamina’s father went to bring her home, he allegedly found her bleeding from the nose. According to Shajeela, Ashkar allegedly attempted to kill Aamina multiple times. She claimed he tried to poison her, attempted to hang her after she was unconscious, and even pushed her from a moving autorickshaw.
Now, Aamina remains under treatment at a physiotherapy centre attached to the Thiruvananthapuram medical college hospital. According to her family, she underwent brain surgery in 2024 after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage and remained unconscious for nearly two years. They allege the condition was the result of repeated assaults in which her head was slammed against walls. She can barely speak now and needs support to walk.
The family says that even when they approached Nedumangad police while she was on ventilator, they turned the complaint down. The family claims six complaints were filed. Yet police records show only two petty cases against Ashkar. The family has also raised suspicions regarding the drowning of Aamina’s brother, alleging that Ashkar had repeatedly threatened to kill both Aamina’s father and brother.
The case has also revived scrutiny of reports surrounding a young woman from Chirayinkeezhu who allegedly died by suicide after Ashkar backed away from a promised marriage before Aamina’s case. Police say no formal complaint was received, yet it is under scanner after the toddler’s murder.
Then came the warnings about Arshid. Weeks before the toddler’s death, both his arms had been fractured.
His grandmother, S Reena, says that she did not believe the explanation that he had fallen from a bicycle. She claims to have approached police, expressing fears that the child was being abused and even offering to take custody of him. But the statement of Akhila, the child’s mother and Ashkar’s partner, was accepted on trust and police did not go into a probe.
Now, police suspect the fractures themselves may have been caused by abuse. The investigation has since revealed what doctors described as a horrifying pattern of injuries. The postmortem examination documented 91 injuries, including damage to internal organs. It is learnt that the murder was the culmination of weeks of violence.
The most troubling aspect of the case is that none of these warnings surfaced after the murder. They surfaced before it. The picture that is emerging is of a child who may have stood at the centre of repeated alarms that failed to go into a probe. Had any one of those warning signs triggered a serious probe, many lives could have been saved.
FIRST WIFE’S WOES
According to Aamina’s family, she underwent brain surgery in 2024 after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage due to repeated assaults. She can barely speak now and needs support to walk. The family says that even when they approached Nedumangad police while she was on ventilator, they turned the complaint down