Overview

• Muhammadali, 54, walked into Vengara police station on July 3 to admit he fatally kicked a laborer into a Koodaranji stream in December 1986.
• Thiruvambady police have reclassified the 1986 drowning as a homicide, filed murder charges under SHO K. Prajeesh and remanded him in judicial custody.
• Only a brief December 1986 news report and missing post-mortem records have left the first victim’s identity unresolved.
• A special squad led by AC T.K. Ashraf is investigating Muhammadali’s claim of a second killing in September 1989 at Vellayil Beach with an acquaintance named Babu.
• Authorities are treating his confessions cautiously and note his reported mental distress after his sons’ death and injury prompted his decades-long silence.