Kozhikode: Police have intensified the probe into the murder of Siddique, a hotelier here a day after recovering his body from a gorge along Attapady ghat road.
Three including Siddique's former employee Shibili (22) and his girlfriend Farhana (18) are named as accused in the case. According to police, personal enmity is suspected as the reason which motivated the accused to commit the crime.
Siddique (58) from Tirur who was running a hotel here went missing on May 18. Police said they found his body cut into two halves and stuffed in two trolley bags from the gorge.
It is learnt that the three accused executed the crime with proper planning and made Siddique book rooms at a hotel in Eranhipalam here. Manorama News have recovered the CCTV visuals of the accused leaving the hotel with the bags.
It is confirmed that Siddique reached hotel De Casa Inn along with the accused and booked two rooms on May 18, the same day when he reportedly went missing.
"As per our preliminary investigation, the death happened between May 18 and 19. Hence, the body is estimated to be around seven days old. It seems like the murder happened due to some personal issues," said Malappuram Superintendent of Police S Sujith Das.
The police officer also added that there is no clue about the alleged honey trap in the case.
The police have collected CCTV images of the suspect from Kozhikode's Eranhipalam area and confirmed that Shibili, Farhana and her friend Aashiq were along with Siddique in the hotel room. Police recovered Siddique's body during the searches conducted along with Aashiq.
However, the district police chief said the details of the murder and the motive behind it would be revealed only after the post-mortem and the interrogation of the accused.
Rs 1.5 lakh withdrawn using ATM card
Meanwhile, a close relative of the deceased told the media that Siddique had settled the accounts with Shibili on May 18 and before he went missing.
"Siddique was using an ATM card in the name of his younger son. It has been found that after he went missing, the card was used at various places, and around Rs 1.5 lakh was withdrawn," the kin told the media.
The police confirmed that two men and a woman had withdrawn money from ATM counters in Kozhikode, Angadippuram and Perinthalmanna.
Police added that the involvement of more people in the crime is being investigated.
