Gibin was brutalised before murder, say police

In the couple of hours preceding his tragic death, Gibin Varghese had to face the anger of a furious gang as they rained blows on him using bare hands and with some blunt object, according to the police.

For, the post-mortem report suggested broken ribs and internal bleeding caused by brutal beating might have led to his death.

As soon as the victim reached the house of Azeez at Vazhakkala on his scooter around 12.30 a.m. he was tied up to the grill of a staircase by a waiting gang of 14, either relatives or immediate neighbours. The 33-year-old was then brutalised for over two hours till his death, said District Police Chief (Kochi) S. Surendran.

It was the tragical culmination of years-long conflict between the victim and Azeez’s family over an alleged affair the former had with a member of the latter’s family. It is suspected that Anees, Azeez’s son-in-law, lured the victim to the house by sending WhatsApp messages from another mobile phone.

“The victim died in a couple of hours following the beating and his body was dumped along Vennala-Palachuvadu road around 4 a.m. There was conspiracy and planning behind the incident” said Mr. Surendran.

The body was shifted there in an autorickshaw owned by one of the accused Ali.

Azeez’s son Manaf drove the autorickshaw while another accused Salaam sat in the back holding the body. They were escorted by co-accused Shihab and Nizar on the victim’s scooter and by Ali in his car to ensure that everything went smooth.

However, in between, the autorickshaw ran out of fuel and had to be refuelled. In a state of panic, the accused also forgot about the CCTV mounted in front of Azeez’s home that clearly captured the shifting of the body to the autorickshaw, the police said.