For several months, ‘Jinnumma (Jinn Mother)’ had been conducting rituals at Gulf-based businessman Abdul Gafoor’s house in Kerala’s Kasaragod district to cure his wife Shareefa, who suffered from back pain and depression.
On the night of April 13, 2023, Jinnumma and her associates went to Gafoor’s house when all his relatives were away and told him that he also needed to undergo some of these rituals as part of their efforts to “exorcise the jinn” that they had convinced him was the cause of his wife’s suffering. They then covered his head with a thick cloth and hit it several times against a wall. The next day, when his family came home, they found Gafoor dead.
According to police, 38-year-old Shameena K H – known as Jinnumma, a ‘black magic’ practitioner – and her gang allegedly murdered Gafoor on the pretext of doing black magic because they had taken a large amount of gold from him.
On Thursday, police arrested Shameena, her husband Ubaid (38), and two other locals, Asfina (36) and Ayisha (43). The first three were accused of being directly involved in the murder, and the fourth was charged with destroying evidence.
Gafoor, who had several business ventures in the Persian Gulf, was introduced to Shameena by Asfina, who lived in the same locality in Poochakkad, Kasaragod.
‘Doubling gold’
As Shameena and her gang started regularly coming to Gafoor’s house to perform the rituals they claimed would cure his wife, they also told him they could double his gold.
According to the family’s police complaint, Shameena allegedly took 596 sovereigns of gold from Gafoor over time with the promise that she would double it. It was later alleged that Gafoor borrowed some of this gold from others.
Investigating officer, DySP K J Johnson, said: “A chunk of the missing gold belonged to Gafoor and the rest he had borrowed from others to get it doubled by the woman. We have to cross-check the details to ascertain the amount of gold the gang took.”
Police said Shameena allegedly started taking the gold six months before the murder and that she and her associates planned to kill Gafoor after he began demanding that they return the gold.
On April 13, Shameena and her gang went to Gafoor’s house when other family members were away on engagements, as it was the month of Ramzan.
“They created an atmosphere of black magic, making Gafoor obey the woman’s directions. They then covered his face with a cloth before forcefully hitting his head against a wall several times. The murder was a planned one,” said the investigating officer.
When his relatives found Gafoor dead at home the next day, they did not suspect foul play as there were no visible external injuries. They conducted his funeral, burying him the same day.
Seeds of suspicion
Suspicions began to crop up when, after the mourning period, some friends and relatives approached Gafoor’s family, informing them that he had borrowed gold from them. The family searched the house for the gold but could not find anything.
As more such inquiries about borrowed gold came in, Gafoor’s son, Ahammed Mussamil, filed a police complaint, raising suspicion about his father’s death and the missing gold.
On April 27, the body was exhumed, and a postmortem was conducted. The result of the postmortem, which revealed that he had suffered internal head injuries, led police to start an in-depth investigation into the matter. In May this year, Kasaragod district police chief D Shilpa formed a Special Investigation Team for this case.
Residents also formed an action committee in an attempt to unravel the mystery.
The investigation
The police investigation started zeroing in on the arrested accused after officers found that they were involved in suspicious financial dealings and bank transactions after the murder. Gafoor’s son’s complaint had expressed suspicion that Shameena may have had something to do with the murder.
Besides, digital evidence showed the gang was at Gafoor’s house at the time of the crime. Police also recovered WhatsApp chats between Gafoor and Shameena, apart from documents that showed the woman had taken Rs 10 lakh and gold ornaments from Gafoor.
Investigators found that the gang had sold the gold ornaments to different jewellers. So far, police have recovered 29 sovereigns and plan to interrogate the arrested persons to recover the rest of the gold.
The four accused were arrested under IPC sections 449 (house-trespass to commit serious offence), 302 (murder), 397 (robbery or dacoity where the offender attempts to cause death or grievous hurt), and 201 (destruction of evidence) read with 34 (common intention), as well as various sections of the Drugs and Magical Remedies Act.