Kasargod: Missing Housemaid Safiya Reported Murdered in Goa
Pics: Achu Korekod
Daijiworld Media Network – Kasargod (SP)
Kasargod, Jul 3: Parents of Safiya, a 14-year-old girl from Ayyangeri in Kodagu, had been on dharna in front of the Kasargod bus stand, withering under hostile climate in a make-shift tent, pressuring the Kerala government to find out the whereabouts of their missing daughter. When the sleuths finally cracked the nut and broke the news of their daughter's whereabouts, the parents were shell-shocked. Because, their dear daughter was murdered by her master by cutting her body into pieces when she was alive
The macabre incident took place at flat No.3 of Nashva Apartment located near the office of the Goa Water Board on December 15, 2006. A civil contractor named Hamza who was arrested in connection with this heinous crime and produced by the policemen in the court on Wednesday July 2, was remanded to police custody till July 19.
Safiya, daughter of Moidu-Ayesha couple from Ayyangeri, Kodagu district, Karnataka, was brought to Kasargod about three years ago for being engaged in household work through an agent. Hamza (42), a resident of Muliyar Mastikunda in Kasargod district, who was doing civil contract works in Goa, had hired the girl and taken her to Goa. When working at his place, the girl disappeared mysteriously.
Safiya's parents had filed a case of her disappearance in the Adoor police station in December 2006. When the police investigations limped and there was no progress at sight even after a year since the complaint was registered, people lent their support to struggle, organized dharnas and protests resenting the police inaction, in support of Safiya's parents who launched an indefinite dharna. Finally, the government relented and assigned the case to the crime intelligence wing on May 20 this year.
The police, who produced wife of Hamza too in the court on the evening of Wednesday July 2, said that they have been interrogating one of the relatives of Hamza named Abdulla. Tight security had been arranged and gates of the court were closed, as large gathering of people and protestors who shouted anti-child labour slogans, swarmed the court premises after coming to know of this macabre incident.
While preparing rice gruel for lunch on that fateful day, the extremely hot gruel being cooked fell on Safiya. Safiya was grievously injured. Even after ointments were smeared to her wounds, there was no apparent improvement in her condition. To ensure that the ghastly sight of a girl with ugly burns does not scare their children, the couple lodged Safiya in a separate room. By night, Safiya developed high fever and started to shiver uncontrollably. Her health was deteriorating. Hamza and Abdulla, his relative, fearing that leaving the situation as it is would be to the family's detriment, cut Safiya's body into pieces even as she was alive, and buried the pieces near a dam Hamza was constructing on contract. Hamza later came back to Kasargod and spread the rumour that Safiya went missing from Hamza's house, said the investigating officers.
It took almost one and half year for police to crack the case. It is now clear that police had been bribed by Hamza and some sources said that one of the top officials of police department was proving to a major hurdle in investigating the case. But ultimately, the government and the police department had to bow before the people's protest. Finally the case was handed over the Crime sleuths. Led by SP K P Philip and DySP K V Santhosh Kumar, sleuths managed to bring out the truth within a month.