Police identified the victim as Saleem, 44, parts of whose body was recovered from the courtyard of his friend Shareef's rented house at Varkala, some 50 km away from here, Thursday and pieced them together. Shareef, 41, returned from the Kingdom last month and Saleem three weeks ago. The latter was missing since July 9."It seems the two had been doing business together and Shareef owed a big amount of money to Saleem. More details will be available only after questioning him further," said sub-inspector of police V.K. Vijayaraghavan. "The murder was meticulously planned at least six months in advance."Shareef invited Saleem to his house on the fateful day and offered him a beer added with a heavy dose of sleeping pills. Shareef then killed his friend, cut the body into pieces using a knife that he brought from abroad, put them in polythene bags and buried in the backyard.He also sent his wife and children to her house saying he wanted to clean up the place and the septic tank. When the family returned the place was clean and nothing suspicious was there. The police, who recovered the car and cell phone of Saleem from a nearby area, just registered a man missing case. It was also suspected that he was abducted by a gang demanding money but nothing was heard about him since.Last week, the case was raised in the State Legislative Assembly by the local legislator Varkala Kahar through a submission and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy assured him to expedite the investigation.Following this, the police traced the calls registered on the cell phone and Shareef was under the scanner. Police took him into custody a couple of days back and he admitted to have killed his friend after prolonged interrogations.Police believe that Shareef committed the crime all alone and no proof for involvement of anybody else, including members of his family, has come up so far. Varkala Kahar was not available for comment as he was away in Makkah to perform Umrah.
