Mangalore police arrest three for murdering two youth over smuggling rivalry'

Mangalore, Jul 7: Three persons have been arrested by Mangalore City Police in connection with the murder case of two youth from Kerala in the city.

The accused have been identified as Mohammed Mahajir Sanaf, a resident of Cherkala and Mohammed Irshad and Mohammed Safwan, from Anangoor in Kerala.

Mangalore City Police Commissioner R Hitendra told media persons on Monday that the trio murdered two youth from Kerala—Nasir, a resident of Thalassery and Fahim, a resident of Kozhikode—owing to professional rivalry.

The gang was involved in gold smuggling racket and the accused are agreed to have committed the crime as Nasir, who was carrying gold had not handed over the smuggled gold to the destination, rather sold it off for personal gains.

The trio hatched a plan to murder Nasir and Fahim and occupied a rented house at Attavar in Mangalore 20 days ago. As the accused and deceased were friends, the accused took the youth to the rented house and murdered them on July 1.

To conceal the crime, they carried the bodies in their car to a village in Kasargod and buried them in 10 cents land bought by Safwan at Ilaneeradka in Kundamkuzhi in Kasargod for the same purpose.

On receiving information about suspicious movement of the three youth in Mangalore, the City Crime Branch police stopped them and found blood stains in the vehicle. While interrogating them they admitted to the crime.

The bodies have been recovered from the place where they were buried and the family members of the victims have confirmed the identity.

Fahim's relatives have said that he was missing since a year and they had filed a missing complaint in Kozhikode. The other youth Nasir was missing since eight months.

The youth were carrying three kg gold , of which they had sold off 2.5 kg gold to the shops.

“We are investigating whether it is the case of contract killing. So far we have not found any cases registered against the accused. However, we have seized fake passports from them which they were using for gold smuggling,” the Police Commissioner said.