Kerala: Cops take Shafi to collect evidence

KOCHI: On Monday, police took prime accused in Elanthoor murder case Muhammed Shafi to the financial establishment, where he had allegedly pawned the gold ornaments he took from his victim Padmam, for evidence collection. Police sources said Shafi had pawned 39g of gold at the establishment in Chittoor Road for over Rs 1 lakh. The gold was seized by the police and they had taken the help of Padmam’s family to ascertain its ownership.Earlier, the probe team searched Shafi’s home at Gandhinagar for six hours to recover documents related to the transaction. Shafi was taken to the establishment at Chittoor road by Monday evening. A huge crowd had gathered at the site and police had arranged security to avoid incidents of public outrage against the accused. Police had earlier received statements from the victim’s family that Padmam had nearly six sovereigns of gold. Police are also investigating if Shafi had hidden more ornaments elsewhere.Meanwhile, police took all three accused to the government medical college to collect samples for DNA analysis. They also received information that the gold belonging to Rosly (another victim) could have been pawned at Pathanamthitta and police suspect that second accused Bhagaval Singh might have done it, sources said.The team investigating man-missing cases to check for similar cases, is learnt to have found one more incident connected to Shafi. Police didn’t divulge more details but said it was unlikely that other deaths might have happened at the house.