Malappuram: Not long before he threw his nine-year-old nephew to death into a river, Mankarathodi Mohammed had taken the boy for a movie and bought him refreshments, video footage shows.

Mohammed Shahin breathed his last in the swirling waters of Kadalundippuzha at Anakkayam, near this Malabar city, after his uncle committed the crime on August 13 since when the boy had been reported missing. The victim was a lower-primary student at DNMAUP School in Edayattur — a place under Perinthalmanna block - where he lived with his parents Abdul Salam and Hasina.

Police said the crime was committed in a bid to usurp some of the “three kg gold” the uncle thought the boy’s parents owned. The plan was to detain the boy in a place and blackmail the parents for a share of the valuable metal.

Search operations are still on to locate the boy’s body. The police, fire force and volunteers are carrying out search operations.

On what turned out to be his last day, Shahin was brought to Valanchery from Edayattur on a bike by his uncle, who took him to a cinema house in the municipal town, 32 km from Malappuram. CCTV footage that investigators have collected from inside the talkies shows the boy being made to watch a Tamil film he didn’t seem like enjoying. Manorama News showed the clip on its TV channel.

Video footage also shows Mohammed taking his nephew to a few other places ahead of the crime. It was during once such trip from Valanchery to Tirur, 21 km westward, that the uncle took Shahin to an eatery and fed him with biryani, chocolate and ice cream. Soon, at Tirur, Mohammed bought dress worth Rs 570 for the boy. At the textile shop, he got the boy change his school uniform and made him wear the new shirt. All the while as the pillion, he saw to it that the boy wore a helmet so as not to be recognised by anyone while moving on the two-wheeler.

Earlier, the boy's school uniform was changed as Mohammed got upset with social media posts around 8 pm that spoke of Shahin missing, the police said. He subsequently got worried that cops had begun to search for the missing boy. And eventually chose to finish off the nephew.

Mohammed had kept Shahin’s school uniform in a bag, which he, in panic, left at the Juma Masjid at Pullilangadi.

Ensured nephew’s death

At the Anakkayam bridge across the Kadalundipuzha, Mohammed lifted the boy by pretending to make him sit him on the bike. But, he flung Shahin into the river and returned only after making sure the boy did die, according to the criminal’s statement to the police. He waited till the boy actually drowned.