Body of hotelier found stuffed in trolley bags in Kerala, 3 people in police custody

Malappuram (Kerala), May 26 (PTI) In a gruesome incident, a hotelier in Kerala was allegedly murdered by his former employee and the latter’s female friend, who then dumped the body parts in a gorge a week ago, police said here on Friday.

Police said they have found a corpse stuffed in two trolley bags suspecting it to be that of Siddique (58), a missing hotelier from Kozhikode district. The deceased, a native of Tirur, was running a restaurant at Kozhikode’s Olavanna.

The body of Siddique was found in a gorge along the Attappady ghat road and three suspects have been taken into police custody.

Tirur police said the body was found cut into two halves, and the torso was in one trolley bag while the lower part was in the other.

Malappuram Superintendent of Police S Sujith Das told the media that the hotel owner is suspected to have been murdered by Shibili, a former employee of his hotel, and Sharfana, a female friend of the accused.

“We suspect that Shibili and his female friend Sharfana are involved in this. They were absconding but were detained in Chennai with the help of railway police. Our team has reached there, and they will be brought here soon,” he said.

Siddique had been missing from Kozhikode since May 18, and his family had lodged a complaint with the police.

The police officer said the information about the body was revealed by a third person under custody, who is another friend of Shibili.

“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,” police said.

The police have collected CCTV images of the suspect from Kozhikode’s Eranhipalam area.

Meanwhile, a close relative of the deceased told the media that Siddique had settled the accounts with Shibli on May 18 and later 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 It has been found that after he went missing, the card was used at various places, and around Rs 1.5 lakh was withdrawn,” the kin told the media.

Police confirmed to PTI that Shibili was also an accused in a POCSO case allegedly involving a co-accused.

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.