Month After Confessing To 1986 Murder, Kerala Man Claims To Have Killed Again

Muhammadali who had last month confessed to killing someone in 1986, when he was a teenager, had committed another murder three years after that, police said on Saturday.

A senior officer of Kozhikode police said that after the accused confessed to both murders in June, an FIR under section 302 IPC was registered right then in connection with the 1986 incident and he was remanded in judicial custody.

"But his claims regarding the second alleged murder are yet to be verified," he said.

The officer also said that according to the accused's brother, Muhammadali had undergone treatment for some mental illness.

According to Muhammadali, when he was 14-years-old, he had killed a man in 1986 within the Thiruvambady police station limits in Kozhikode district.

He had confessed to it at Vengara police station in Malappuram district last month as he could no longer bear to live with the secret.

According to Kozhikode police, he had also confessed to committing a second murder in 1989 at Vellayil Beach which came under Nadakkavu police station here back then.

An officer of Nadakkavu police station said that an unidentified body was found at Vellayil Beach in 1989, but the case registered in connection with it was later closed as "undetected".

"The area now comes under the Vellayil police station. The documents connected with the 1989 case have to be found, which is not easy since the incident occurred around 36 years ago. After that we have to verify whether what the accused said is correct," the officer said.

Regarding the 1986 incident, Muhammadali had said that when a man tried to harass him, he kicked the man in self-defence and that person fell into a nearby stream, police had said earlier.

Panicked, he had fled the scene and two days later, he returned to find the man's lifeless body still in the water.

Fearing the worst, he stayed silent, according to Muhammadali's account to the police.

At the time, the police had treated the death as natural.

Locals then had said the victim was known to have epilepsy, and no one came forward to identify the body. With no leads, the case was closed.

In his confession, Muhammadali, now in his fifties, had told police that the burden of guilt became too heavy to carry especially after personal tragedies struck his own family.

His elder son died, and his younger son was seriously injured in an accident and it was then that he realised he had to come clean.

A police team from Thiruvambady station is combing through old files and newspaper reports in a bid to uncover the victim's identity.

So far, the only surviving record is a short news report from December 5, 1986. It reads: "Koodaranji: Body of a young man found in a small stream behind Mission Hospital. Estimated age: 20", police had said.

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