A day after a six-year-old boy was bludgeoned to death while he was sleeping in Kerala, police said that the accused, the child’s uncle, planned to kill the entire family. The police said that the child, Abdhul Fathah Raihan aka Althaf was killed by Muhammed Shan aka Sunil Gopi at his house in Amakkandam of Idukki around 3 am on Sunday, October 3, 2021. Shan was arrested by Vellathooval police near Vandiperiyar.

Police said that Muhammed Shan was taken to the scene of the crime to collect evidence and added that they have also recovered the hammer used to commit the gruesome murder. Police said that Shan had planned to kill Althaf, his mother Safiya, his 15-year-old sister Ashni, and 70-year-old grandmother Sainaba, as revenge due to personal issues. After a divorce from his first marriage, Shan was married to Safiya's sister. All of them were attacked by Shan but Safiya and Sainaba survived with severe injuries and are under treatment in Kolenchery.

The police said that Shan's wife left him recently, and he assumed that his wife's family was responsible for this. The victim's 15-year-old sister Ashni was also kidnapped by Shan after the attack, according to the police, but she managed to escape after two hours.

Safiya and Althaf lived in one house and her mother Sainaba lived nearby. Ashni was living with Sainaba. The accused barged into Safiya's house, assaulted them and later went to Sainaba's house, the police said, adding that Altaf died on the spot. The accused also allegedly dragged Ashni to her house and physically assaulted her. The police said that she managed to escape and hide behind some bushes and later informed neighbours and locals about what happened.

Though Shan was absconding, he was tracked down using a mobile tower location. Altaf's body will be handed over to his family after a postmortem by Monday evening, police said.