The police on Thursday arrested a 46-year-old man on the charge of throttling his wife and infant daughter to death at Pilassery near Kunnamangalam last Sunday. Abdul Rasheed, a differently-abled person and a native of Thalassery, was arrested from Palakkad district after a four-day-long inquiry into the incident.
The police also recovered the body of the infant from Canolly canal on Thursday with the support of Fire and Rescue Services personnel. In the postmortem report, it was revealed that the toddler was subjected to severe physical torture before the murder. A search was conducted in the canal after the interrogation of the accused. He was trying to mislead investigators by dumping the body in the canal, the police said.
The man allegedly travelled around 15 km from Kunnamangalam to Kozhikode city to dump the body in the canal and escape from the district. He had also packed it in a carry bag to evade public attention, the police said.
Although the body of Shahida, 34, his wife, was found at their house on Sunday morning, there was no information about the child. The police zeroed in on Abdul Rasheed after hearing about frequent scuffles he had with his wife. The quarrel was mainly over the paternity of the infant as Shahida had earlier been married to another man, the police said.
Circle Inspector K.K. Biju, who led the probe, said the man killed the toddler first when it cried aloud after seeing him assaulting her mother. “He brutally tortured his wife using a hot iron box,” the police officer said.
It was the postmortem examination report that initially confirmed the murder attempt and prompted the police to intensify the probe. Abdul Rasheed, who was charged under section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code, was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.
