<p>Thiruvananthapuram: A court in Malappuram district in Kerala on Thursday found three persons guilty in the murder of a Mysuru-based traditional healer.</p><p>As the body of the deceased is still remaining untraced, the police proved the case with the help of strands of hair recovered from the car of the key convict.</p>.Healer-dealer colleges play with students' future.<p>Shaba Sharif of Vijayanagar in Mysuru was murdered by the gang after torturing with the intention of knowing his traditional healing method for piles.</p><p>Those found guilty are Shaibin Ashraf, a businessman from Nilambur in Malappuram, Shihabudeen and Nishad - the first, second and sixth accused.</p><p>Ashraf was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under IPC 304. All the three are found guilty of various sections of IPC for abduction, criminal conspiracy and causing hurt. </p><p>Nine others were acquitted, while one accused became approver. Murder charge could not be proved as the accused had no intention to kill. The death happened in the assault by the prime accused. Sentence will be pronounced on March 22.</p><p>Shaba Sharif was abducted by the accused from Mysuru on August 2, 2019. He was held hostage at Ashraf's house and tortured. After he died on October 8, 2020 the accused cut his body into pieces and abandoned in the nearby Chaliyar river.</p><p>The incident came to light in 2022 following differences among the accused. Ashraf lodged a robbery complaint against some of the co-accused. Subsequently three of the accused attempted self-immolation in front of the government secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram alleging that a baseless case was registered against them.</p><p>On further quizzing the three revealed the abduction and murder of the healer. Police could recover video footage of torturing the healer from a pen drive.</p><p>The efforts to recover the body failed as it was almost two years since the murder happened. But the police scientific experts could recover hair strands of the deceased from the key accused Ashraf's car. </p><p>Special prosecutor Krishnan Namboothiri said that the hair strands became very crucial evidence as the body of the deceased could not be recovered. </p><p>"As many as 42 hairs were recovered - 30 from the car in which the dead body was carried and 12 from the home where he was held hostage. Since no cells were present in the hair, Autosomal test was not possible to extract DNA. Hence Mitochondrial DNA test was conducted to confirm that the hair belonged to the deceased," he said.</p><p>The video footage recovered from the approver also proved to be crucial and the time of recording could be known from it, said the prosecutor.</p><p><br>Police officials said that it could be a rare case where the murder could be proved even without recovering the body.</p>
<p>Thiruvananthapuram: A court in Malappuram district in Kerala on Thursday found three persons guilty in the murder of a Mysuru-based traditional healer.</p><p>As the body of the deceased is still remaining untraced, the police proved the case with the help of strands of hair recovered from the car of the key convict.</p>.Healer-dealer colleges play with students' future.<p>Shaba Sharif of Vijayanagar in Mysuru was murdered by the gang after torturing with the intention of knowing his traditional healing method for piles.</p><p>Those found guilty are Shaibin Ashraf, a businessman from Nilambur in Malappuram, Shihabudeen and Nishad - the first, second and sixth accused.</p><p>Ashraf was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under IPC 304. All the three are found guilty of various sections of IPC for abduction, criminal conspiracy and causing hurt. </p><p>Nine others were acquitted, while one accused became approver. Murder charge could not be proved as the accused had no intention to kill. The death happened in the assault by the prime accused. Sentence will be pronounced on March 22.</p><p>Shaba Sharif was abducted by the accused from Mysuru on August 2, 2019. He was held hostage at Ashraf's house and tortured. After he died on October 8, 2020 the accused cut his body into pieces and abandoned in the nearby Chaliyar river.</p><p>The incident came to light in 2022 following differences among the accused. Ashraf lodged a robbery complaint against some of the co-accused. Subsequently three of the accused attempted self-immolation in front of the government secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram alleging that a baseless case was registered against them.</p><p>On further quizzing the three revealed the abduction and murder of the healer. Police could recover video footage of torturing the healer from a pen drive.</p><p>The efforts to recover the body failed as it was almost two years since the murder happened. But the police scientific experts could recover hair strands of the deceased from the key accused Ashraf's car. </p><p>Special prosecutor Krishnan Namboothiri said that the hair strands became very crucial evidence as the body of the deceased could not be recovered. </p><p>"As many as 42 hairs were recovered - 30 from the car in which the dead body was carried and 12 from the home where he was held hostage. Since no cells were present in the hair, Autosomal test was not possible to extract DNA. Hence Mitochondrial DNA test was conducted to confirm that the hair belonged to the deceased," he said.</p><p>The video footage recovered from the approver also proved to be crucial and the time of recording could be known from it, said the prosecutor.</p><p><br>Police officials said that it could be a rare case where the murder could be proved even without recovering the body.</p>