Police begin probe as man confesses to his teenage crime after 39 years

The Thiruvambady police have reopened an investigation into a nearly four-decade-old unnatural death case following the confession of a 54-year-old man from Malappuram that it was a murder committed by him during his teenage days.

The police sources said the suspect, identified as Mohammadali, walked into the Vengara police station in Malappuram on Thursday (July 3) to make the revelation in the cold case with a claim that he was being haunted by guilt.

The man reportedly disclosed to the police that he committed the murder just to escape from the physical harassment attempt by the victim which took place at Koodaranji in 1986 when he was just a 15-year-old boy and working as a manual labourer in the village.

Mohammadali reportedly told the police that the victim, identified as Devassia, was then 20 years old and was working as a manual labourer like him in the same village. The suspect claimed that he kicked Devassia to death in a self-defence attempt and fled the scene. Though the police were able to recover the victim’s body a day after the incident from a nearby stream, it was then registered as a case of drowning, he claimed.

“Mohammadali came up with the strange revelation with a lot of supportive statements. He also identified the crime scene. The case is now being investigated by Thiruvambady Station House Officer K. Prajeesh,” said a senior police officer from Malappuram. He also said that the local police were in possession of a vernacular newspaper report related to the 39-year-old incident as evidence to recover related crime files.

According to police sources, Mohammadali decided to reveal the incident following the premature death of his eldest son. He was also upset after his youngest son suffered fatal injuries in an accident. He believed that the tragic incidents hit his family for his involvement in the murder, the police said.

The man was arrested and remanded in judicial custody on Thursday following a preliminary probe. Police sources said his custody would be sought again after the recovery of related case files, witnesses’ accounts, and the post-mortem report.