Pangode multiple murder case accused Affan sent to police custody 

The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court (JFMC), Nedumangad, has allowed seven-day police custody of A. R. Affan, a 23-year-old charged with the methodical and premeditated murders of his four family members and his girlfriend at different locations in Venjaramoodu Taluk on February 26. 

The police have accused him of bludgeoning his grandmother Salma Beevi, his brother Ahsan, uncle Latheef, aunt Shahida and girlfriend Farsana in a murder romp that spanned at least four police station limits and lasted almost 12 hours.

His mother, A. Shemeena, survived with grievous injuries and is currently under intensive care at the Government Medical College Hospital.

The police claimed they had recovered the murder weapon, a hammer, which the suspect had allegedly carried to the scenes of crime in a backpack. 

So far, the police have booked Arffan in three murders, including that of his paternal grandmother, brother and girlfriend.

They said they would charge him with the murder of Latheef and the latter’s wife, Shahida. The police have recorded his mother Shemeena’s statement.

Officials said she claimed that she had injured herself in a fall. They have constituted a medical board to assess the nature of her injuries and whether they conform to the pattern of fall injuries. 

The police have currently detained Arffan in Pangode police station. They would take him to the crime scene at his house where Ahsan and Farsana were found hammered to death and Shemeena grievously injured and locked inside a bedroom. 

Armed police officers would escort Arffan to the scenes of the crime, given the public outrage caused by the murders in the largely peaceful rural locality. 

The police suspect that profound family debt, an estimated ₹65 lakh, had impelled Arffan to commit the murders. 

According to Arffan’s statement, the police reported that the accused contemplated suicide to escape the debt trap and intended to take his loved ones with him. The police had hospitalised Arffan for nearly a week after he disclosed that he had consumed liquor laced with rat poison. On Friday, investigators were scheduled to escort Arffan to his family house at Thazhe Pangode.