Nine arrested for alleged murder over financial transactions for a rice puller

The Kaippamangalam police have arrested nine persons in connection with the alleged murder of a man whose body was found abandoned in an ambulance reportedly over financial dealing for a rice puller.

The deceased identified as Charles Benjamin alias Arun, 40, a resident of Mettupalayam in Coimbatore, was allegedly murdered on Monday.

The arrested have been identified as Muhammed Sadiq, 53, of Kannur; Salim, 54, of Thalassery; Fayis, 48, and Mujeeb, 49, of Kannur; Dileep Chandran, 44, and Dhanesh, 32, of Thrissur; Suresh, 48, of Ernakulam; Shihab, 40, of Kannur and Abhay, 19, of Thrissur.

According to police, the deceased and another person identified as Sasankan of Chavara in Kollam had collected ₹65 lakh from the first accused Sadiq by promising him a potential windfall of ₹200 crore through the sale of rice puller. They reportedly convinced Sadiq that rice puller was available with the tribal community in Satyamangalam forest and collected money towards arranging it.

When Sadiq realised he had been deceived, he along with the other accused reached Thrissur and hatched a conspiracy with Dileep Chandran on the night of September 22. The next morning they summoned Arun and Sasankan near the Puthukkad toll plaza.

The two were then allegedly abducted and taken to a deserted building in a rubber plantation near Kalloor where they were beaten up. They were then taken around and assaulted first at another plantation and later at the house of Dhanesh, one of the accused, where the death happened, the police said. The accused then shifted the body in a car to Kaippamangalam. In between, Sasankan managed to flee their captivity.

The accused then summoned an ambulance to take the deceased to a nearby hospital under the pretext that he was injured in an accident. The accused then fled though they had promised the ambulance driver to follow him.

At the hospital, Arun was declared brought dead and the ambulance driver then alerted the Kaippamangalam police who found suspicious injury marks on the body. An autopsy revealed that the body had about 70 injury marks revealing brutal assault. A case was registered for unnatural death.

The accused was eventually nabbed after four police teams were deployed by District Police Chief (Thrissur Rural) Navneet Sharma under Kodungalloor DySP V.K. Raju. The car used for shifting the dead body was recovered from Tirur. More people are involved and they will be arrested shortly, said Mr. Sharma.

Prompt examination of CCTV footages and tracking down the route of the accused with the help of Thrissur rural cyber cell led to their arrest, the police said.

A team comprising of Kaippamangalam inspector M. Shajahan, sub inspectors K.S. Suraj, T.K. Jaison, V.M. Biju, Hariharan and Muhammed Siyad, Grade assistant sub inspector P.K. Nishy, senior civil police officers Muhammed Rafi, Sunil Kumar, Jyothish and K.N. Priya, and civil police officers O.S. Jospeh, Muhammed Farookh and T.K. Sooraj made the arrests.

Published - September 26, 2024 07:48 pm IST