Athirampuzha murder: the crucial number that exposed the killer and the victim

Friday 05 August 2016 05:19 PM IST

by Our Correspondent

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Athirampuzha murder: the crucial number that exposed the killer and the victim

Khader Yousuf aka Bashir

Kottayam: The murder of a pregnant woman at Athirampuzha presented a curious case for the police, who were led to the victim’s identity only after zeroing in on the suspect.

The police had been struggling to identify the victim, going through the hospital records in five districts, until they tracked down the suspect to Ammanchery. The victim was his neighbor and lover.

Khader Yousuf aka Bashir killed Aswathi on Saturday night in his house and dropped the body in a rubber plantation. However, he left a vital clue for the police. The polythene cover with which he had wrapped her body was part of a parcel he received from Delhi a year ago. The parcel number on the cover helped the police track down the suspect.

The police reached a courier company office in Delhi with the serial number found on the cover. Retracing the parcel’s route, the police reached Mangaluru. The parcel had been sent by train up to Mangaluru, from where a sub-agent transported it to Kozhikode and then to Kottayam, where Bashir received it.

The sub agent tried to flee the police but the police nabbed him and collected the number of the customer to whom the parcel was sent.

Bashir had sent household appliances to his address in Kottayam after he returned from a stint in Saudi Arabia.

Bashir, from Erattupetta, has been working in a surgical equipment store in Kottayam. The police collected his phone details that goes back a year. The cyber cell tracked the suspect’s move and found out that his location was in Ammanchery after dark. Plainsclothed policemen followed him to his house and nabbed him.

His house had three bedrooms and three mattresses but one of them was not covered with a sheet. The missing sheet was the one found on the dead body, the police confirmed.

Bashir was found to have made lengthy phone calls to the father of the murdered woman. He said Aswathi used to call him after her father had gone to sleep.

Bashir, however, stood his ground. When asked about the parcel cover, he said he had chucked it somewhere near the Medical College.

The police took him to the spot he led them to and tactfully gave him a chance to escape. He fell for the trap and tried to flee, only to be pinned down by the cops who were by now sure of his guilt.

He spilled the beans in later interrogation.

He was questioned at the Police Club by a team led by superintendent of police N. Ramachandran. He said Aswathi had been living with him in his house for a month. The suspect was desperate to do away with the woman before his wife returned from abroad next week, the police said.

The police said that Aswathi and Bashir had an argument on Saturday night that led to the murder. Bashir struck down the pregnant woman and strangled her with a cloth. He dropped her body in the rubber estate.

MY SNAPS

Birds flock the field as a man ploughs it using a tractor at Amballoor in Ernakulam. Photo: Josekutty J Panackal

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