Kerala healer killer behind twin murder in UAE: SIT
Harris was found dead with his wrist slit and Densi was suffocated to death, and police believed that Harris had killed Densi before committing suicide.
A special investigation team (SIT) of Kerala police probing the killing of Mysuru-based traditional healer Shaba Shareef came across another twin murder allegedly committed by members of a gang headed by Shaibin Ashraf, said a senior official of the SIT.
Soon after the arrest of Ashraf and his gang members in connection with the murder of the healer in May, the mother of his erstwhile business partner TP Harris petitioned chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and top police officials seeking a probe into the death of her son in March 2020 in Abu Dhabi. Harris and his manager Densi Antony were found dead in the former’s flat and the UAE police later came to a conclusion that it was a “suicide pact”.
Harris was found dead with his wrist slit and Densi was suffocated to death, and police believed that Harris had killed Densi before committing suicide. In her petition, the mother insisted that her son would not commit suicide, and it was a clear case of “murder” and she suspected hands of his former business partner Ashraf. She alleged a financial dispute with Ashraf led to his son’s death.
The SIT official said during investigation they came across a 45-page blueprint prepared to eliminate the two. “We were really shocked. It was almost like a document of some dreaded spies,” said the official who did not want to be named. According to the SIT, Ashraf engaged a criminal gang of eight and they were sent to the UAE on visitor visa in 2020, and he arranged a flat for them in the same apartment where Harris stayed.
The SIT found that four people allegedly involved in the murder of healer were also involved in the twin murder. After questioning the arrested, they unravelled the murder mystery. They reportedly told the SIT they became friendly with Harris soon and trapped him in his flat and summoned his manager. They said before killing Harris, he was forced to suffocate Densi so as to get his fingerprints on her body. After torturing him, his wrist was slit and bled to die and he was later suffocated with her shawl, they told the SIT.
The SIT also found that gang members were forced to stay in the UAE for two more months due to the outbreak of Covid-19, and they spread enough stories in the close circles of Harris to doubly ensure that it was a “suicide pact”. During the plot, Ashraf was monitoring everything from his house in Wayanad in north Kerala, SIT said.
Gang members also said they were rewarded properly for carrying out their “quotation” work (planned killing).
When some gang members carried out a protest before the state secretariat in April, which finally led to cracking of the healer’s murder, they handed over a pen drive in which some conversations were in code language and there was also reference on how a murder case was converted as “smart suicide.” Police later found that the conversation was between Ashraf and some of his confidants.
Police have sought a legal opinion about the new case, since the alleged crime was committed in a foreign country. They are also planning to approach Abu Dhabi police to get details of the case diary. The SIT official said they cannot divulge more details since investigation was not completed.
On April 28, three of the gang members who fell out with Ashraf Shihabuddin, M Nousahd and Zakeer came to the state capital from Wayanad and tried to immolate themselves before the state secretariat alleging that they were hounded by Ashraf. Later they were overpowered by police. They told police about the healer’s killing and handed over a pen drive which carried torture sessions of the healer. They also admitted that they were partners in many such crimes.
Later police cracked the mystery behind the death of the piles healer Shareef. He was allegedly abducted from Mysuru in August 2019 and held hostage in Ashraf’s mansion in Nilambur and tortured to get his treatment protocol of piles and haemorrhoid for over one year. Ashraf was planning to open a hospital for piles and haemorrhoid in Wayanad after extracting “family secrets of his treatment”.
During one of the torture sessions, Shareef died, and gang members allegedly cut his body into several pieces and threw them into Chaliyar river in Malappuram district in October 2020, SIT later found. Among nine gangsters allegedly involved in the case, SIT arrested six including main accused Ashraf. The SIT said four more who participated in the twin murder are absconding and two of them are suspected to be in the middle-east.
