In an incident of suspected moral policing in Kerala, a youth was beaten to death by a group of people on Thursday night in the coastal area of Chavakkad in Thrissur district. This was the third incident of murder by moral policemen in the recent years in Kerala.
Sawahir (28), son of Mamootty of Puthiyedath house on the Moosa Road, Chavakkad was beaten up reportedly after he was spotted at midnight on Thursday at the house of a young woman at Anchangadi with whom he was said to have an affair. Another report said that the young man was forcibly taken to the woman's house where he was beaten up by a group of people.
After the attack, the seriously injured young man was taken to a nearby hospital in a goods autorikshaw, presumably by the assailants themselves. After the doctors at the hospital declared him dead on arrival, those who had taken him there escaped the scene without even giving their names. The Chavakkad police said that they were searching for five persons who had attacked Sawahir. The assailants were local residents of Anchangadi and could be arrested any moment, they said. They have collected metallic implements, wooden rods and other weapons used in the attack on Sawahir from near the young woman's house.
One report quoted Sawahir's brother Zakeer Hussain as saying that he had not visited the woman's house but was taken there by the group of men late in the night. Once they reached the woman's house, they attacked Sawahir at the house and outside it, he alleged, adding that he was murdered as per a plan not because of any illicit relationship. A group of young men posing as moral policemen had beaten to death a 55-year-old daily wages worker, Prabhakaran, at Kulukkalloor near Cherpulassery in Palakkad district on the night of February 15 last. The group attacked Prabhakaran when he was returning from his friend's house accusing him of having an affair with a woman residing nearby.
Shaheed alias Bava (26), a cable TV service provider in Kodiyathur, Kozhikode was the first person to be killed by moral goons in Kerala. A group of men, all belonging to a particular community, had brutally beaten him up by tying him to an electric pole on the night of November 9, 2011 as he was leaving the house of a young woman. He died four days later. A Dalit youth from Panthalayini near Koilandy in Kozhikode had committed suicide in February, 2012 after being beaten up by moral goons. The gang had attacked the young man, a taxi driver, accusing him of having illicit relationship with a woman. Babu took the extreme step after the goons spread the video of the torture through mobile network.