Nilambur: A team of the Indian Navy undertook massive search operations for retrieving the body parts of the slain traditional healer Shaba Sherif at the Chaliyar River in Nilambur on Saturday. The Navy team is understood to have retrieved a piece of bone from the river which is suspected to be that of a human being.

The search operation was launched on the basis of the statement given by the accused Shaibin of Mukatta and driver Naduthottika Nishad that they threw the body of Shaba Sherif into the Chaliyar River from the Seethi Haji Bridge at Edavanna.

A five-member Navy team from the Kochi unit led by Command Clearance Team Marshal Premendra Kumar began the search operation from beneath the bridge around 10.30 am on Saturday. The Fire Force and the Rescue Force also joined the mission.

Braving heavy rain, the team went into a depth of eight-meter in the river. In the meantime, it stumbled upon a bone suspected to be that of a human being. The forensic test will be conducted to ascertain whether it is a human bone or not.

The search will continue till Sunday afternoon.

As per the case, Shaba Sharif, 60, was abducted from Mysuru in August 2019, kept as hostage at the house in Mukkanda and died during torture in October 2020. Later his body was chopped and the pieces thrown into the Chaliyar River in Nilambur. Shaibin, the mastermind of the crime, intended to seize seize from the healer the medicine for piles the latter was reportedly in possession.

The first accused Shaibin and other accused Ponnakaran Shihabudeen and Nishad are in judicial custody now.