Kasaragod: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has asked two former committee members of a mosque in Manjeshwar to join the investigation into the 2010 hand-chopping case after finding that the prime accused Savad Meerankutty (38) got married in the mosque without submitting any ID document while he was on the run from the law.
NIA sub-inspector Sinoj S on Monday served the 'notice to witness' on Bappan Kunhi alias Kunhimon (49) and T M Mohammed (69) of Thuminad in Kasaragod's Manjeshwar to appear before the central agency in Kochi on Wednesday (January 24).
They were the president and the secretary of Al Fatr Juma Masjid, popularly known as Kukaje Masjid, of Thuminad when Savad's marriage was registered in February 2016. "The NIA is particularly interested in knowing how the mosque conducted Savad's marriage without any identification document," said a senior officer of Kerala Police's Crime Branch. He said the mosque committee might have been influenced by someone from the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI) or its political arm SDPI.
NIA court had convicted 19 members of the two organisations for hacking the right hand of T J Joseph, a Malayalam teacher at Newman College in Thodupuzha over an alleged blasphemous question paper he set for his BCom students in 2010.
But Savad Meerankutty, who allegedly chopped the hand, went into hiding after the crime. He led a normal life as a carpenter for 13 years till he was arrested from a rented house at Beram in Kannur's Mattannur municipality on January 10.
The Crime Branch officer said Savad was helped by SDPI and PFI supporters to find houses and jobs as he kept changing his locations in Kannur and Kasaragod districts.
Police suspect SDPI to be behind his marriage alliance with the family in Manjeshwar, especially because the father-in-law is a "hard-core SDPI activist", said the officer.
However, the father-in-law maintained that he or his daughter did not know the true identity of Savad and that they came to know that he was a wanted person only when TV channels flashed his arrest.
On Sunday, NIA asked Savad's father-in-law to appear before it on Monday. "But he said he was unwell and did not go to Kochi," said a senior officer of Kerala Police's Crime Branch.