Thiruvananthapuram: In a grisly pre-planned murder spree, a 23-year-old youth hacked five people, including his girlfriend, brother, grandmother, uncle and aunt, with a machete to death and attempted to murder his mother at three different locations in Venjaramoodu here on Monday. He also struck them with a hammer.
After reaching Venjaramoodu police station in an autorickshaw, the accused, Affan, son of Rahim of Salman Manzil at Perumala near Attukal, surrendered to police and confessed that he had murdered six people, police said.
The accused reportedly told police that financial difficulties led him to the crime as his family members were reluctant to clear his “substantial debt”. His father’s business in the Gulf had reportedly suffered huge losses. However, police are probing further as they suspect that debt alone may not have been the sole reason for the killings. The mobile phone and call records of the accused are being examined to determine whether he is addicted to drugs, police sources said.
Following his confession, police rushed to his house at Perumala, where they found his mother, Shemi (47), a cancer patient, alive. She was immediately hospitalised and remains in a critical condition in the intensive care unit of the medical college hospital. His brother, Afzan (14), and girlfriend, Farshana (19), were found dead in another room. Police also rushed to Pangode and SN Puram and found the bodies of his grandmother, uncle and aunt.
Affan was admitted to the medical college hospital after he claimed that he had consumed rat poison to end his life. However, during a medical examination, doctors could not confirm the presence of any poison in his body, police said.
According to police, the accused first murdered his grandmother, Salma Beevi (88), at Pangode after reaching her home around 3pm. He then travelled to his uncle Abdul Latheef’s (58) house at SN Puram near Koonanvenga, approximately 16 km from Pangode, where he killed Latheef and his wife, Shahida Beevi (54).
From there, Affan returned to his home at Perumala, where he attacked his mother, brother Afzan, and girlfriend Farshana. After committing the murders, he went straight to the police station in an autorickshaw.
According to residents, the accused had brought Farshana to his house two days earlier. Around noon on Monday, he was seen buying food for his brother from a hotel at Venjaramoodu. Shemi, Afzan and the accused had been in the Gulf with Rahim for a year before returning after his business suffered losses, they said.
