Kasaragod: Nearly five years after an elderly single woman was smothered in her house for her jewellery, a court in Kasaragod found one of the four accused guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The Principal Sessions Court in Kasaragod found K M Abdul Khader (36) of Kumbla guilty of murdering Subaida (60), and awarded him a life sentence and slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh, said public prosecutor P Dineshan. Abdul Khader was also convicted for trespassing house for assault and causing hurt while committing robbery (sections 452 and 394 of the IPC).
The lone conviction was largely based on circumstantial evidence, he said.
The fourth accused Bava Azeez (24) was let off because he had turned approver to help the investigators -- who were groping in the dark -- stitch up the pieces of evidence against the other three accused in the 2018 whodunnit.
Yet, the police and the prosecution fell short in court.
Judge C Krishna Kumar acquitted the third accused Harshad (28), a resident of Manya near Kasaragod's Vidyanagar, for lack of evidence.
The second accused P Abdul Azeez (32) of Ajjavara in Karnataka's Sullia taluk, did not face trial because he escaped from police custody seven months after he was arrested on February 15, 2018.
Azeez, facing trial in another murder case in his hometown, was taken to a Sullia court on September 14, 2018. He hoodwinked the Kerala officers escorting him and escaped that day.
"When A2 (accused no. 2) is arrested, we will have to conduct the whole trial again," said Dineshan.
The public prosecutor said he would appeal against the acquittal of the third accused.
A crime with no eyewitness
Subaida, who lives alone, was found dead in her house at Ayambara near Periya on January 19, 2018. Her mouth was gagged, and her hands and legs were tied with a black stole. The body had started to decompose.
Bekal police, which registered the case, suspected persons known to Subaida to be behind the murder because they found two half-empty glasses of lemon juice on the table, and there was no sign of forced entry.
Forensic surgeon S Gopala Krishna Pillai, who did the autopsy, found traces of formic acid in her nose and mouth and bruises on her face. He concluded Subaida was smothered with hands, said the public prosecutor.
Formic acid irritates eyes, and causes shortness of breath and swallowing difficulties, he said.
When Subaida was younger, she used to work as a domestic help in a house. The woman of the house had a mental illness and Subaida helped raise her four children and became a part of the family. "For the children, Subaida was a motherly figure. When they grew up, they continued to care for her. They even built a house for her," said Dineshan. Initially, police suspected the children.
On January 16, 2018, when the eldest of the four children came home from Dubai for vacation, Subaida had gone to his house to meet him. "That was the last when anyone from the family saw her," said the public prosecutor.
The next day, that is on January 18, a relative of the children phoned Subaida to invite her to a wedding. But the calls went unanswered.
"They assumed she must have misplaced the phone. But when Subaida did not call back even the day after, they went to her house on a secluded stretch. "The door was locked but her phone was ringing inside," said Dineshan.
The police were called in and they found Subaida dead.
The police had nothing to begin the investigation. The K9 Squad's German Shepherd tracker Rooney did not leave the compound.
After days, the police decided to look up the mobile signals that pinged off the towers in the location, said the prosecutor.
The officers went through the data dump and found there was one phone number that appeared in the area for the first time on January 16.
The phone number belonged to the sister of accused number 2, Abdul Azeez in Sullia. Police took the call records and found calls went from the SIM to accused no. 1 Abdul Khader and accused no. 3 Harshad from Ayambara.
The police got names to work on. The call data suggested that they were at Ayambara on January 16 and 17, 2018.
Investigators hit the ground again. This time, they asked around if they spotted any strangers in the area on the two days.
"A person who manages a rented apartment in the area told police that Subaida introduced three men to him on January 16. They were looking for a house to stay in," the prosecutor said. The men had come in a white i20. Police tracked the car to a rent-a-car business.
On February 2, Kasaragod police arrested Abdul Khader and Abdul Azeez from Uliyathadukka near Kasaragod town.
Harshad, who was acquitted now, surrendered before the Judicial First Class Magistrate court in Kanhangad. Azeez, the accused no. 2, was rounded up by the investigating team headed by the then Bekal Circle Inspector V K Vishwambharan.
In search of quick money
Two weeks before Subaida was killed, the police found that the four accused were involved in a road accident in Kannur. "Their car rammed into a scooter and the mob there held them hostage and asked for Rs 20,000," said the prosecutor.
The mob detained two of them and their car and allowed two others to go and fetch the money. They returned with the money.
"Since then they were looking to recoup the lost money," said the public prosecutor.
The first accused Abdul Khader then suggested to the other accused that they could burgle a woman's house at Ayambara, where he worked years ago, he said. "But when they reached Ayambara, they came to know the woman had died long ago," said Dineshan.
When the gang was driving back, they saw Subaida walking on the isolated street. "She was returning home after meeting the eldest son who arrived from Dubai," he said. And she was wearing her gold ornaments.
The gang stopped the car and asked her whether any houses were available for rent in the area. It was a ploy to get acquainted with her, said Dineshan. "She took them to the manager of the rental apartment and then returned home," he said.
The four men spoke with the manager and drove off without sharing their phone numbers or names.
The next day, that is on January 17, they returned in a red Swift. Police later found it was also from another rent-a-car outlet. They did not go to the rented apartment but to Subaida's house. "The acquaintance they struck up with Subaida the day before might have helped. She let them in," he said.
The police surgeon's report said Subaida was killed on January 17.
But the accused found only 27g of gold ornaments: a pair of earrings, a bangle, and a necklace. "They sold it for Rs 50,000 in a jewellery shop in Kasaragod town. That's all they needed," he said. Police recovered the ornaments for the shop.
Since there was no eyewitness to the crime, the prosecution had to depend on the approver to tighten the case.
But since the approver Bava Azeez did not get bail in the case, he remained in prison till court sentenced the accused no. 1 Abdul Khader. The court released Bava Azeez on Wednesday.
