Police record Noushad’s arrest

Kozhikode: Police, on Wednesday, recorded the arrest of Bathery native Noushad (35), the prime accused in the murder of Hemachandran—whose body was found buried in Tamil Nadu's Cherambadi forests. Immigration authorities detained him at Bengaluru airport at 1pm on Tuesday after he arrived from Saudi Arabia and a police team from Medical College station then took him into custody.With this, four people have now been arrested in the case. Police said the team would take all the four arrested accused into custody for interrogating and to identify the other accused in the case.Police said Hemachandran was abducted 16 months ago near Kozhikode Medical College and taken to a house in Wayanad where he was murdered. They said the killers buried his body in Cherambadi near TN border. Police had arrested two of Noushad's accomplices and based on their statements, the body was recovered on June 28. Noushad is the first accused in the case. Police had also recovered two mobile phones used by Hemachandran from Mysuru.Noushad continued to maintain that the death of Hemachandran was not murder but suicide. Police rejected his claim and said there was evidence and confessions of the other accused to prove that it was a case of murder.