Malda case: 2 friends of key accused arrested, arms seized

The two youths — Sabir Ali ( 19) and Mohammad Maruff (21) — are said to be friends of main accused Mohammad Asif, who had confessed to have killed his parents, grandmother and sister. The four bodies were exhumed from the house on Saturday.

Malda police on Sunday arrested two more youths and seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition in connection with the murder of four members of a family at Kaliachak.

The two youths — Sabir Ali ( 19) and Mohammad Maruff (21) — are said to be friends of main accused Mohammad Asif, who had confessed to have killed his parents, grandmother and sister. The four bodies were exhumed from the house on Saturday.

Police said Ali and Maruff of Gurutola village had hidden the firearms on Asif’s instructions in their house. A separate case under the Arms Act has been registered against the three accused.

“The accused had taken a lot of money from his father and was also eying his property. We have recovered Rs 2.27 lakh from his possession. It seems that he killed them for property, but that is not conclusive and further investigation is needed. During investigation, we have found that he had procured some arms from someone. We also came to know about two of his friends. Five seven-mm pistols, 10 magazine and 80-round cartridges were recovered from their house. Asif had asked his friends seven-days days ago to keep the arms. A separate case has been filed against all three accused,” said SP Alok Rajoria.

While investigation revealed that the four people were murdered on February 28, the matter came to light only after his brother informed the police.

According to police, Asif had spiked his family members’ drink with sleeping pills before tying and gagging them. The victims have been identified as Asif’s father Jawad Ali (50), mother Ira Bibi (45), sister Arifa Khatun (17) and grandmother Alekjan Bibi (75). He later buried the bodies in the house. His elder brother, however, managed to flee to Kolkata and informed police on Saturday.

According to police, they were probing to find out from where he procured those arms.

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