Arshad, the key suspect in the alleged murder of a youngster in an apartment at Edachira near Kakkanad, has inter-State drug dealings, District Police Chief (Kochi City) C.H. Nagaraju has said.
Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Mr. Nagaraju said there were drug and money transactions between the suspect and the victim. Prima facie, they were into sales, peddling, and use of drugs. The suspect had admitted to it, he said.
Arshad, a resident of Payyoli in Kozhikode district, was nabbed from Manjeshwaram in Kasaragod on Wednesday, a day after the body of 23-year-old Sajeev Krishna was found wrapped in a bedsheet and shoved into a duct on the 16th floor of the apartment. The police suspect the body was two-days-old when it was discovered.
Arshad and an accomplice, who is accused of harbouring him, were nabbed with a nearly 1 kg of ganja, MDMA, and hashish oil from near a railway station. The team from Kochi City police wrapped up legal formalities to secure the transit warrant to bring the duo to the city by late Thursday afternoon.
The Kochi City police are considering multiple theories in their investigation. Mr. Nagaraju said the alleged murder could be an act of sudden provocation, suggested by the multiple stab wounds. “But the root cause for that needs to be found out. This can be done only after we get hold of the suspect in a normal condition. He was still showing withdrawal symptoms,” he said.
If the victim and the suspect had struck drugs-related business transactions in the short period they had known each other, then dispute in that regard could have led to the murder. But that again was a theory that needed evidence, said Mr. Nagaraju.
The police have not ruled out the possibility of the involvement of more people in the crime. The suspect had not just stabbed the victim, but had cleaned up, packed the body, and shifted it elsewhere. All that could have taken up to five to six hours, the timeline of which would have to be verified during the interrogation.
Mr. Nagaraju said probe was on to find whether someone else had been to the apartment during the time.
