Death of NRI and missing gold: Police seek polygraph test on 3 accused

Kasaragod: Bekal Police have approached the Kasaragod Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) seeking permission to conduct polygraph tests on the three accused in the suspicious death of an NRI businessman of Poochakkad in Pallikkara grama panchayat.

After the sudden death of M C Gafoor (53), gold ornaments weighing 4.9 kg and worth around Rs 2.85 crore were missing from his house, his relatives told police.

Police want to conduct polygraph tests to find the whereabouts of the jewellery. Bekal deputy superintendent of police C K Sunil Kumar said the tests would be conducted at a forensics science lab if the accused give their consent.

Gafoor, who owned four supermarkets in Dubai and Sharjah, was found dead in his house at Poochakkad around 5:30 am on April 14, a Friday, during Ramadan. He was alone when he died.

The previous day, he had dropped his wife Sharifa at her parents' house at Melparamba, along with their youngest daughter Fathimath Rahma (15).

At the time, his son Muzamil, and brothers who were his business partners, were in the UAE. The relatives concluded that Gafoor had died by natural causes, possibly from a heart attack, and went ahead with the funeral.

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 was missing from the house.

His son Muzamil first filed a complaint over the missing gold jewellery and named as the main suspect a woman, who claims to be a 'jinn' who claimed to remove the 'evil eye' from families. The woman used to frequent Gafoor's house and had also worked for the family. Later, Muzamil filed another complaint raising suspicion over Gafoor's death.

Thirteen days after he was buried at Poochakkad Juma Masjid cemetery, Bekal police exhumed the body on April 27. An autopsy was done on the spot and his organs were sent for chemical examination to check for traces of poison, if any.

"The chemical tests returned negative," said DySP Sunil Kumar. The police have not got the final autopsy report. "We have not recieved the final opinion on the cause of death. But there was an injury on the back of the head," he said.

The body had decomposed so the autopsy could not conclude if he had indeed suffered a heart attack, the officer said.

Police are now pinning their hopes on the polygraph tests to find the missing gold. But the tests cannot be conducted without the consent of the accused.

If they consent, the information received from the tests cannot be used as confession, but the information can be used to gather evidence that will be admissible in court, said police.