Contractor, wife arrested for murdering teenager in Goa DH News Service, Kasaragod: A special team, constituted under intense public pressure, has cracked a murder mystery of a teenager in Madgaon with the arest of a couple.
Civil contractor C K Hamsa (42), who was arrested on June 30, has confessed that he cut his maid Safia (14) into three pieces and buried the body in a polythene bag with the help of his relative Abdullah. The gory incident of December 16, 2006, perhaps would never have come to light but for the series of protests by the local youth organisations under the banner "Safia Missing Action Committee" in Kasargod and later by the PDP activists. The subsequent visit by Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who handed over the case to the crime branch resulted in the arrest of the accused. The special squad, headed by SP K P Philip and DySP Santhosh, cracked the case within 40 days of its formation. The pressure from the locals and the intervention by the Home Minister led to the arrest. Hamsa had taken Safia (14) from a village in Kodagu in 2005 to his house in Kasargod. Later, he took her to Goa to work as domestic help at Ramanagar apartments in Madgaon. On December 15, 2006, Safia suffered burns while cooking. Hamsa, who was at home, instead of rushing Safia to hospital kept her at home and applied medicine. Hamsa's wife Mymuna (29) was not at home at the time of the incident. As her condition turned serious next day, Safia fell unconscious. Presuming that Safia was dead, Hamsa decided to cut her body with a sickle. As he was cutting, he realised that the girl was alive but still murdered. A few days affter burying the body, he filed a missing complaint in Kasargod. Police too did not take the case seriously till protests commenced. 5 accused Hamsa was arrested by the police on June 30 and he was produced before the court on Wednesday. The court on Thursday remanded prime accused Hamsa to police custody till July 9 while Mymuna was remanded to judicial custody for 15 days. Abdulla (35), Moidu Hajee (60), who helped Hamsa find a maid and P N Gopalkrishnan, ASI, who reportedly tried to cover up the case, have been named as accused in the case. Gopalkrishnan has already been placed under suspension. Meanwhile, the Kerala government has decided to give Rs 2 lakh compensation to the family members of Safia, who too were part of the protests in Kasargod.