Haunted by guilt: Kerala man confesses to killing after nearly four decades
Kozhikode (Kerala) (PTI): For nearly four decades, Muhammadali lived with a secret he could no longer bear.
On Friday, he walked into a police station at Vengara in Malappuram district and calmly confessed to a crime he says he committed as a teenager in 1986—the killing of a man whose name no one ever knew.
The incident, he told officers, took place when he was just 14.
Muhammadali had been working on the property of a man named Devassya in the quiet village of Koodaranji, which is under Thiruvambady police station limits in Kozhikode district.
One day, he said, a man tried to harass him. In self-defence, he kicked the man, who fell into a nearby stream, police said, revealing his confession.
Panicked, the teenager fled the scene. Two days later, he returned to find the man's lifeless body still in the water. Fearing the worst, he stayed silent, according to Muhammadali's account to the police.
At the time, the police treated the death as natural.
Locals then had said the man was known to have epilepsy, and no one came forward to identify the body. With no leads, the case quietly faded into the past.
But for Muhammadali, it never truly went away.
Now in his fifties, he told police the burden of guilt became too heavy to carry—especially after personal tragedies struck his own family.
His elder son died, and his younger son was seriously injured in an accident. It was then, he said, that he realised he had to come clean.
He informed the police that he couldn't sleep after the tragedy struck his family.
Investigators took his confession seriously. He led them back to the scene and showed them the spot where the body had once lain.
Now, a police team led by Thiruvambady Station House Officer K Prajeesh is combing through old files and newspaper reports in a bid to uncover the victim's identity.
So far, the only surviving record is a short news report from December 5, 1986. It reads: "Koodaranji: Body of a young man found in a small stream behind Mission Hospital. Estimated age: 20."
Police have now filed a murder case against Muhammadali, who is in judicial custody.
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Women BJP MLAs protest against opposition in UP assembly premises
Lucknow (PTI): Women BJP MLAs held a protest in the Vidhan Bhawan complex before the one-day special session of Uttar Pradesh assembly, slamming the opposition for defeating the passage of a bill, which would have led to implementation of the Women's Reservation Law, in the Lok Sabha.
This followed another demonstration by Samajwadi Party MLAs, who alleged that the BJP was misleading public in the name of women's reservation.
The women BJP legislators assembled in front of Chaudhary Charan Singh's statue in the assembly premises, holding banners inscribed with the slogan "Insult to Matrushakti (women's power), India will not tolerate it". The protesting members entered the main hall of Vidhan Bhawan carrying the banners.
Participating in the protest, the state Minister for Women Welfare and Child Development, Baby Rani Maurya, told reporters that all opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, had opposed the women's reservation, a stance for which they would have to pay a heavy political price.
"On this issue, all of us women stand united. We will ensure that we secure our reservation," she said.
BJP MLA Ketki Singh remarked that their protest represents the collective outrage of millions of women across the state.
Singh asserted that the opposition has betrayed women by creating hurdles in the path of women's reservation. The current demonstration is merely the beginning, and very soon, women from every street, intersection and household will join the protest movement, she said.
Minister Vijaylakshmi Gautam said, "We strongly condemn the despicable act committed by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in an attempt to hold back 'half the population' (women). Their action was directed against the very bill that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had introduced to empower and strengthen Nari Shakti (women's power), and which he strived to pass expeditiously."
Uttar Pradesh assembly is holding a one-day special session on Thursday. During the session, the government is set to move a censure motion against the opposition parties over their failure to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill, which would have led to implementation of the Women's Reservation Act, in the Lok Sabha.
