KOCHI: In May, when the Additional Sessions Court awarded capital punishment to three people, including a woman in the sensational Santhakumari murder case, it was a stamp of approval for the good work done by Vizhinjam police led by Inspector Prajeesh Sasi.
The convicted were Rafeeka Beevi, her son Shafeeq and Rafeeka’s partner Al Ameen — the first two were natives of Kovalam, while the third hailed from Palakkad.
The case assumed significance for two aspects. It’s a rare incident where a mother and son have been sentenced to death. Also, during the questioning in connection with the Santhakumari murder case, the cops got information about another gruesome murder committed by the trio in 2021, when they were staying in Kovalam.
Prajeesh, now the inspector of Cantonment police station, recalls that the investigation posed challenges as there were no eyewitnesses to the murder.
“But the investigation was done meticulously and we collected other evidence that pointed to the involvement of the accused. All the hard work that went into the probe has been rewarded as they have got the commensurate punishment,” he says.
Santhakumari, 72, was murdered for gold ornaments that she was wearing. Rafeeka and the other two were living in a rented house where Santhakumari used to come to collect tamarind. That was when the accused spotted her gold ornaments. Soon, they planned her murder.
After murdering her, the culprits hid Santhakumari’s body in the attic. And soon, the trio vacated the house.
When the house owner visited the building, he found blood dripping from above. His first thought was that Rafeeka was killed by the men living in the house. However, soon it emerged that another woman, Santhakumari, a resident of Mulloor was missing.
Police responded quickly, and were able to nab the trio before they went into hiding. The investigation team identified a friend of Al Ameen, who was residing nearby.
From the friend’s social media account, the cops found a photo of Al Ameen and they also managed to get the phone number of one of the accused and tracked it down to Thampanoor.
The police had a hunch that the accused might try to flee to Palakkad, where Al Ameen hailed from. On checking with the private bus operators, it was found that three tickets had been booked for Palakkad by a person identified as Al Ameen. The team followed the bus. At Kariavattom, they stopped the bus and apprehended the trio.
The arrest and interrogation had a serious ripple effect. During questioning, Rafeeka and Shafeeq confessed their involvement in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl at Kovalam on January 24, 2021, exactly a year before Santhakumari’s murder. The girl, who was bed-ridden due to health issues was raped by Shafeeq and to hide his crime, the mother-son duo murdered her by bludgeoning her with a hammer.
A former police officer of Kovalam station, who was part of the probe, remembered how the two, who lived near the victim’s house, used to mislead the cops by providing them with wrong information.
“The two tried to turn the needle of suspicion towards the victim’s adoptive father by speaking ill about his conduct. The probe hit a roadblock as the the cops did not find any breakthrough and the case was deemed undetected,” the officer explains.
However, during the questioning in the Santhakumari case, the cops found out that they had lived near the victim’s house at Kovalam and that the cold-blooded murder had some similarity to Santhakumari killing.
“Once the investigators began digging deep, they broke down and confessed to both murders. And material objects and the stolen objects were seized from them based on their confession,” another police officer says.
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