In a major breakthrough in the murder of Muhammed Riyas, a madrasa teacher, inside a mosque at Choori, near here, a special police team investigating the case arrested three youth in connection with the case.
The investigation team, headed by Crime Branch Superintendent of Police A. Srinivas, arrested Ajesh, alias Appu, Nithin Rao, and Akhilesh, all of them aged 19. The youth were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, which sent them to judicial custody, police sources said on Friday.
The accused confessed to stabbing the madrasa teacher under the influence of liquor and ganja.
Ajesh and Nithin Rao, both casual labourers, and Akhilesh, associated with some private banks, reached the mosque premises on a motorbike around 11.45 p.m. on Monday. On spotting the trio, mosque khatheeb Abdul Azeez, hailing from Malappuram, came out of the building. Nithin Rao threw stones on the priest.
In the meantime, Ajesh forced his way into the room of the 28-year-old madrasa teacher, hailing from Erumadi in Karnataka’s Madikkeri district, as the latter was busy preparing for the morning class. Ajesh stabbed the teacher with a knife killing him on the spot, even as Akhilesh was seated on his bike on the mosque premises. The accused said that an altercation during a sporting event at the Thalipadappu grounds on March 18 had angered them and they resolved to take revenge, sources said.
After the crime, the trio drove straight to Akhilesh’s uncle’s residence at Kelugudde before abandoning the knife in a nearby areca nut grove. While Akhilesh went back to work, the other two confined themselves in a shed at Kelugudde leading to public apprehension about their disappearance under mysterious circumstances which forced the police to zero in on them using the cyber cell services.
