Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (SP)
Mangaluru, Nov 3: The police have arrested seven persons in connection to the gruesome murder of Ijaz alias Iijja (23), when he had visited a salon in Kannur for a shave on October 31 year. A car and weapons used for the murder have also been seized.
Some assailants, who had come in a Maruti Alto car, had barged into Modelling Hair Dressers salon in Kannur near Padil where Ijaz was being attended by the owner of the salon. They had then indiscriminately hit him with machetes. After this barbaric act, they had fled.
The arrested accused are A K Riyaz alias Jiya (33) from Adyarkatte, Mustaq Ahmed (30) from Kannur Yousufnagar, Aniz (22), a resident of Dayamba in Borugudde Kannur, Azman (22) from Ballurgudde in Kannur, Fazal (20) from Kannur Ganadabettu, Shabaz (22) from Kannur, and Hasanabba (29) from Kannur.
A team headed by rural police station inspector, A K Rajesh, under the guidance of deputy police commissioners, Dr Jagadish and Dri Vishnuvardhan N and assistant police commissioner, Pawan Nejjur, had been formed to crack the case, by the city police commissioner, R Hitendra. The team, which got information that the murder-accused were coming towards the city from Moodbidri direction, waited for them at Parari in Gurpur. The car was stopped on its arrival, after which the policemen questioned its occupants and confirmed that they were the wanted men.
A K Riaz alias Jiya is said to have planned this operation. He is a dealer in crushed stones, and faces nine cases in different police stations concerning murder attempt, posing of life threat etc. It is said that he knows Talat of Target Group, an associate of Rashid Malbari. Riaz had come close to Talat during one of his jail stays. Another accused, Mustaq Ahmed, had ten cases against him, out of which he has been discharged in five. At present, he is facing five cases, which are different stages of hearing in courts, it is gathered. Azman, a painter by profession, also faces several cases including robbery. Fazal is a construction worker, while Aniz works in dock yard.
The police have gathered information that Shabaz, who had been sent to check whether Ijaz was present inside the salon, signalled to five other accused to confirm that he was indeed there. The gang then rushed to the salon, threatened several people waiting for their turn to go out, and then launched attack on Ijaz. The small finger of one of the assailants had been snapped during the period machetes were flashed at Ijaz at the salon. The injured had got first aid for the said injury at Chikkamagaluru, and the gang members were coming to the city for treating him at KMC Hospital, when they were intercepted and arrested.
The accused were raring to settle scores relating to the murder of their friend, Puttumonu, two years back. Moreover, Ijaz it is said, used to pose life threats to some of these gang members often. All the accused have been remanded to 15 days judicial custody.