KOLLAM: The Karunagapally police have arrested all the 10 accused in the murder of gangster Aluva Athul, who was hacked to death in the middle of the road on Saturday.
Within 12 hours of the incident, all the accused involved in the crime were apprehended, and the two vehicles used for committing the offence and for escaping after the incident were taken into custody.
The arrested are Aneer, 32, Vishnu, 28, Noufal, 30, Hussain, 31, Aashiq, 27, Shamnad, 30, Muhammad Faisal Khan, 29, Ali Ummar, 24, Shinu Peter, 31, and Adhil Mohammad, 21. All the accused were charged for murder and remanded in judicial custody.
“The main accused in the case were arrested on Saturday. A special team was deployed to capture the four accused. The vehicle in which the accused were travelling was tracked and was followed till Mundakkayam,” said Kollam City Police Commissioner M Hemalatha. “Since we have only initiated the investigation into the muder, it is too early to comment if it was a revenge act of Jim Santhosh’s murder,” the commissioner added.
When enquired why the muder occurred even after having information about it she said, “We have taken the necessary actions when the information was received but it still happened. And we are also investigating if there is any conspiracy involved in this.”
Aluva Athul, a gang leader accused in Jim Santhosh murder case, was chased and hacked to death in broad daylight in Karunagappally on Saturday. A special investigation team was formed under Thiruvananthapuram Range DIG Himachandranath and Kollam Commissioner Hemalatha.
Searches were launched across Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Idukki and Kottayam. Within hours, the accused who were directly involved in the crime — Naufal, Shamnad alias Shankaradi, Shinu Peter, and Muhammed Faisal also known as Kshandi Faisal — were taken into custody. During the interrogation, Naufal revealed that the other accused had abandoned the Innova car used for the crime and escaped in a Swift car.
The police traced the vehicle moving to Varkala, and subsequently towards Kottayam. They followed the vehicle, and at Mundakkayam, when the accused attempted to abandon the vehicle and escape, Vishnu alias Black Vishnu, Aneer, Hussain, and Ashiq alias Thoma were apprehended with the assistance of the Kottayam police. Subsequently, Adil and Ali Umar were also taken into custody.
Police sources said Manu, a friend of Athul who was with him in the car during murder, was also attacked. He is also an accused in the Jim Santhosh murder case. The police said that Aneer, friend of Jim, was attacked during the murder. In revenge, they killed Athul. These gangs are involved in narcotics, and dealings between them later led to clashes — and then to Jim’s murder.
Athul was in jail and got remanded on March 7. Sources said that following information about chances of attack, they have informed him about the threat but still he chose to come out on bail.