KOCHI: The Kakkanad flat where the body of a 23-year-old Malappuram native was found wrapped in a bedsheet functioned ‘like a bar’ and it was frequented by drug addicts, especially during weekends, making it a ‘den of drug abusers’.
Meanwhile, more details that unravelled before the gruesome murder show that there were no unusual developments in the flat till August 14 evening when Sajeev Krishnan, a hotel employee, was allegedly murdered by his roommate Arshad, a native of Payyoli, Kannur.
The delivery boy who supplied food to the flat where the accused and the victim stayed (16-F flat of Oxoniya apartment, Edachira) told TNIE that he delivered two chicken shawarmas at 3.56pm on the ill-fated day. He said the person who collected the food resembled Sajeev Krishnan, who ‘looked like actor Dhyan Sreenivasan’.
Niyas, a cab driver, told TNIE that he had visited the flat on the fateful night. Niyas visited the apartment, along with Ajmal and Arshad (Arshad, not the accused) — all three are cab drivers in Kochi — for abusing ganja around 9.25 pm on the same day. They left around 10 pm, and there was nothing unusual at the flat as per their revelations. “I was visiting the place only for the second time. Arshad opened the door and Sajeev Krishnan handed over the ‘stuff’. We could not sense there were any issues between the two,” said Niyas, who came to know about the availability of drugs in the flat through his friend Amjad, who is also a flatmate of Sajeev Krishnan.
Other residents in the apartment told TNIE that the flat had become a hub of drug abusers. “A neighbour’s flatmate complained about the smoke that emanated from the flat. Though we thought that it was due to cigarette smoking, a few days ago we came to know that it was the smoke of ganja,” said a resident requesting anonymity.
Kochi city police commissioner C H Nagaraju said that the flat functioned almost like a bar. “Several people used to visit the flat to get drugs. They abused the drug at the flat itself. Approximately 10–15 people regularly visited the flat for the same purpose. It was almost like a bar,” said the commissioner. The murder, according to Nagaraju, is believed to have occurred in the early hours of August 15. “A financial dispute in the drug deal might have ended up in tragedy. We need to interrogate the accused to get more clarity in the case. Only he can reveal the real incidents that led to the murder of the hotel employee,” said the commissioner.
Meanwhile, a top police source said Sajeev was a wholesale drug dealer and that the accused provided financial support for the same. “Though Sajeev sold the drugs purchased using the fund provided by the accused, the former failed to return the amount as agreed earlier. This resulted in a scuffle which ended up in the murder,” the source said, adding that the accused will be produced before the local court in Kochi on Saturday.