Kozhikode: A key statement from his daughter was the turning point in the missing case of Wayanad-based businessman Hemachandran (54), whose body was found in a forest near the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.
Addressing a press conference in Kozhikode on Sunday, Kozhikode Deputy Commissioner of Police Arun K Pavithran said that when Hemachandran’s daughter called her father’s mobile, she realised that the voice on the other end did not belong to her father.
Hemachandran went missing from Kozhikode on March 20, 2024. His wife, N M Subisha, lodged a missing person complaint at the Kozhikode Medical College police station two weeks later, when he became unreachable by phone.
According to Asst. Commissioner A Umesh, Noushad, Jyothish and Ajesh, the accused in the case, kept Hemachandran ‘alive’ for 4-5 days after his death. After murdering the businessman, the culprits attended calls on Hemachandran’s mobile phone and attempted to imitate his voice in order to mislead them. One of the accused persons travelled to Gundlupet and Mysuru in Karnataka with Hemachandran’s mobile phone, officials added. Additionally, the accused gave statements regarding the businessman’s contacts in these locations. When the police cross-checked the locations and call records of the missing man, it matched their statements,” officials added.
As per the confession of the accused, the police reached the burial spot in Cherambadi in Tamil Nadu on Saturday and exhumed the body with the help of the Nilgiri police.
The DCP said that the master brain behind the murder, Noushad, to whom Hemachandran owed money, left for Saudi Arabia. “Even after the police got a clear picture of what had actually happened, they were waiting to get the body. That’s why we permitted Noushad to go abroad. We are trying to bring him back to Kerala,” the DCP added.
According to DCP Arun, the police have identified a few more persons who either aided the culprits or were aware of the kidnapping, and they will be arrested later. “There is a woman from Kannur who helped in kidnapping Hemachandran. Another woman from Gundlupet, whom he owed money to, was aware of the kidnapping,” he added.
According to the police, since Hemachandran was avoiding Noushad due to the money he owed, Noushad enlisted the woman from Kannur to make contact with him. “She called Hemachandran and arranged to meet in the Kozhikode Government Medical College area. He was staying in a rented house in Mayanad near the Medical College. The accused abducted him from there and transported him to Wayanad. He was murdered the following day,” officials added.
The DCP said that the primary autopsy report states that it was a murder. “The notable point is that the body has not decayed completely, presumably because of the cold weather in the Cherambadi forest area,” he added.
The identification of the body, currently kept in the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital, will be completed only after a DNA test, following which the body will be handed over to his family.