As part of efforts to track down a youth who was allegedly abducted from Panthirikkara by a gold smugglers’ gang, the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by the Kozhikode Rural police has decided to check details of one of the recent unnatural deaths near Koyilandy in the district.
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The SIT headed by Perambra Assistant Superintendent of Police T.K. Vishnupratheep adopted a change in the course of inquiry based on the statements of two Wayanad natives—Jinad Mohammed Kutty, 31, and Shaheel Haneefa, 26—who were arrested in connection with the incident, on Thursday.
Sources said the 26-year-old was suspected of jumping into a river after escaping from the custody of the gang that was travelling by car. “There is no clue yet whether the youth had managed to escape or drowned. With the special permission of the Perambra Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, DNA samples of his parents have been collected to be matched with the suspected unnatural death case. We are yet to rule out a murder attempt,” they said.
According to the Peruvannamuzhi police, Irshad, a native of Panthirikkara, who arrived here from Dubai on May 13, was abducted three weeks ago by an unidentified gang in the name of a suspected gold deal. He was suspected of handing over the gold to another carrier, provoking the main agents involved in the racket. He was held hostage as part of an attempt to recover it,” they said.
Irshad’s parents who filed a petition with the police had claimed that they had received death threats multiple times against their son from a Koduvally native. They had also revealed to the police that the suspected person who masterminded the abduction had used WhatsApp calls to issue death threats. Though one of the suspects had been nabbed within a few days after the incident, the others were at large, they said.