NRI businessman's body exhumed, organs sent for chemical analysis after family raised suspicion over death

Kasaragod: Bekal Police on Thursday exhumed the body of NRI businessman M C Gafoor (53) and conducted an autopsy after his family raised suspicion over the death.

The body was exhumed from the Poochakkad Juma Masjid cemetery where he was buried on April 14.

Forensic surgeon Dr Saritha conducted the postmortem and sent the organs for chemical analysis. "It will take around two weeks to get the reports," said Bekal station house officer - inspector U P Vipin.

Gafoor, who owns four supermarkets in Dubai and Sharjah, was found dead in his house around 5.30 am on April 14, a Friday. His son Muzamil and brothers, who are his business partners, were in the UAE. But the relatives concluded that Gafoor had a peaceful death, possibly from a heart attack, and went to the funeral.

He was buried by 11.30 am before the son and brothers arrived.

After the funeral, when the family sat together, they found that Gafoor had borrowed jewellery weighing around 4.9 kg from his daughter Umme Kulsum, daughter-in-law, niece, and sister. The jewellery worth around Rs 2.85 crore was missing from the house.

Also, a day before he was found dead, Gafoor had dropped his wife Sharifa at her parents' house at Melparamba, along with their youngest daughter Fathimath Rahma (15). He had returned home by 2 pm.

No one saw him after he broke the fast in the evening on April 13. The next day, when he did not turn up at his brother's house for the pre-dawn meal, the relatives checked on him and found him dead.

His son first filed a complaint over the missing gold jewellery and named a female 'jinn' or genie, who claims to remove the 'evil eye', as the main suspect.

"We have only begun our investigation. We have got nothing to connect Gafoor's death with the missing gold," said Bekal deputy superintendent C K Sunil Kumar.

After the autopsy at the cemetery, Gafoor's remains were re-buried.