Murder of Kerala hotelier a case of honey trapping: Police

Thiruvananthapuram (IANS) | Police probing the murder of a 58-year-old hotelier from Kerala on Saturday revealed that it was a case of a well-planned honey trap operation by the three accused, who have been taken into custody by the police. Police have taken Shibli (22), her female friend Farhana (18) and Aashiq into custody for the gruesome murder of a hotel owner Siddique in Malappuram district.

The dastardly crime took place at a lodge where Siddiq had booked two rooms and they all met there on May 18.

Talking to the media, Malappuram Superintendent of Police Sujith Das called it a well-planned honey-trap operation by the trio.

The rooms were booked by Siddiq and on reaching there he met the other three people, Das said. Soon Siddiq was asked to undress and when he protested, Farhana took out a hammer and handed it to Shibli, who hit Siddiq on the head.

Shibli had a knife.

Das said, when Siddiq fell down after being hit by the hammer, Ashiq kicked him in the ribs. His lungs were injured and he died.

Das further said that after this he went to a shop and bought a trolley-bag.

They then tried to put the body inside the trolley-bag, Das said. But when he failed, he again went to the market and bought a mechanized cutter and another trolley bag. Then all three came back and with the help of cutter cut the dead body in the washroom and packed it in both the trolley-bags.

On May 19, Das said, Ashiq – who was known to be in the area of Attappady in Palakkad district – took the bags in his car along with others, and dumped them on the roadside. Later, Farhana was dropped at her home.

He said, on the morning of May 24, Farhana and Shibli boarded a train from Ottapalam to Chennai, from where they planned to catch a train to Assam, but were detained by the police.

Das told that Farhana knew Siddiq from before, as her father was a friend of Siddiq. It was he who got Shibli a job in his hotel.

Shibal worked in his hotel for 15 days.

“We will recover the knife, hammer and blood-stained clothes used on Saturday from the accused,” Das said. The accused have told us that they dumped them at a particular place.

The crime came to light when Siddiq went missing from his hotel on 18th of this month.

He was last seen the same day at a lodge about six km from his hotel.

The probe team reached Attapadi on Friday with Ashiq and recovered two trolley bags.

The body was then taken to the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital for postmortem and handed over to the family in the evening.

The three accused are likely to be produced before a local court later this afternoon.

–IANS