MALAPPURAM: The Perinthalmanna police on Friday launched an investigation to uncover the mystery behind the grievous injuries that led to the death of a Palakkad native who went missing last Sunday after landing at Kochi airport from Jeddah. The police suspect that a gold smuggling gang might have brutally assaulted Abdul Jaleel, 42, of Vaikathodi house in Agali and abandoned him in a private hospital in Perinthalmanna. Jaleel had been working as a house driver in Jeddah for the past eight years.
Jaeel arrived at Kochi airport at 9.45am on Sunday. Though his family members started travelling to the airport to pick him up, Jaleel asked them to stay back in Perinthalmanna as he would meet them there.
“So, we waited for him there itself on Sunday as he said he was coming with one of his friends. Later in the afternoon, he contacted us on the phone and told us to return home and promised us that he would reach home on Monday. But till Monday evening, he did not reach home. Hence, we registered a missing person complaint at Agali police station.
When we were at the station, Jaleel again contacted us and asked us to withdraw the complaint immediately. He promised us that he would reach home soon. He sounded like he was forced to say these. However, he did not return home till Wednesday,” said Shihabudheen, a relative of Abdul Jaleel.
On Thursday morning, a person contacted Jaleel’s wife, Mubashira, saying that her husband was admitted to a private hospital in Perinthalmanna. “We rushed to the hospital. We saw Jaleel in a badly assaulted condition. Bruises were visible. The doctors told us that someone had assaulted him and that both his kidneys were not functioning,” Shihabudheen said.
Perinthalmanna DySP Santhosh Kumar M said a gold smuggling gang might have been involved in the incident. “We suspect that Jaleel was a gold carrier, but failed to hand over the gold to the smugglers after coming out of the airport. Then, the smuggling gang kidnapped him and assaulted him to get hold of the gold. This is a possibility, but we need more evidence to prove it,” the officer said. Similar attacks on carriers were carried out by gold smugglers earlier in Malappuram.
The smuggling gangs usually attack the gold carriers who try to cheat them. Usually, the job of a carrier from the Gulf ends after he/she safely comes out of the airport terminal and hand over the gold. However, some carriers try to escape with the illegal gold. The smuggling gang members kidnap such carriers and assault them to recover the gold. The police suspect that Jaleel’s death was the result of one such incident.
A person named Yahiya had abandoned Jaleel at the hospital. The police have launched a hunt for him.
“It is Yahiya who contacted Jaleel’s wife on Thursday. He told her that her husband was admitted to the hospital. But we don’t know who this person is,” Shihabudheen said.