A year after a Kerala man died in a train accident near Kozhikode, the state Crime Branch has unearthed evidence which suggests foul play and involvement of two women in his death.
Jamshed (32) was found lying on the railway tracks on the night of August 29 last year. His body was found near the Pookadu railway gate in Koyilandy, which is 31 km away from his residence in Feroke, Kozhikode.
When the case was probed back in 2019, the Koyilandy police suspected it to be a case of suicide. The officials concluded the case citing it as death by accident, after understanding that a Koyilandy- Kozhikode train had hit Jamshed just as he was crossing the tracks.
The 32-year-old had reportedly taken a quiet bylane from the local market to reach the tracks. After being run over by the train, he even moved 10 metres on the tracks before passing away. The local police recovered his body the following day and an FIR was registered.
Cut to 2020, this case was freshly re-opened with the Crime Branch taking over the probe. Payyoli Crime Branch DySP R Haridasan, who also helped probe the Jolly Joseph murders, is tasked with investigations in the case.
The move to reopen the probe came after Jamshed’s mother wrote a letter to both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and State DGP Loknath Behera, citing suspicions in her son’s death and disinterest from the Kerala police.
According to her complaint, Jamshed had transferred close to Rs 15 lakh, to the accounts of two women that he had been in touch with. The complainant, however, stated that this was not investigated by the Koyilandy police when they registered an unnatural death case. It was the CM Pinarayi Vijayan who asked the Crime Branch to probe the 32-year-old’s death.
Suspicious financial transactions
Based on investigations so far, the Crime Branch has unearthed the role of two women who had been in touch with Jamshed prior to his death.
The 32-year-old had been working at a private enterprise and doing odd jobs at local stores for a living. However, his bank accounts show that he had transferred amounts adding up to lakhs to both these women.
“Jamshed was working in a job earning a maximum of Rs 20,000. He did not have the financial capacity to secure and transfer lakhs to people. Further, the two women who have now been found to be in touch with Jamshed received this amount. However, we found that there is no professional or working relationship between Jamshed and these women in order to transfer such huge amounts to their accounts,” DySP Haridasan who is part of the Payyoli Crime Branch told TNM. Call logs from Jamshed’s phone also show that he had been in contact with the accused women.
“He was a single child to his mother, a young promising man, earning to sustain his family. His relatives believed that if he wanted to kill himself, he must have had external pressures which they are unaware of. The relatives had also filed a complaint regarding this at the Koyilandy police, which they claim was ignored,” Haridasan added.
Many of the points being probed by the police now were noted by Jamshed’s mother as a letter, and handed over to the State DGP.
“We questioned over 20 people on the case. We are still trying to get details on how Jamshed sourced the money, his relationship with the two women, why such a huge sum was transferred to their account and other details. We are still investigating those aspects,” DySP Haridasan added.
Crime Branch officials withheld information from the role of the two women and their background, as the probe is ongoing in the case.