Mangaluru : The prime accused in the murder case of a notorious rowdy Kalia Rafique which occurred two-and-a-half years ago has been nabbed. The arrested is identified as Mohammed Najeeb alias Kallatra Najeeb (46), a resident of Chalayangod Melparamba in Kasaragod and was on the run since the incident. The cops had already arrested several others in connection to this case including Noor Ali, Rasheed T S, Hussainabba alias Hussain, Mutasim alias Taslim and others.

On Feb 14 2017, Mohammed Zaheed along with Kalia Rafique, Mujeeb and Firoze had left in a Ritz car at 11:30 pm I the night from Hosangadi in Kasaragod via NH 66 and reached a petrol pump at Kotekar at 12 am in the night. During this time, the accused came in a tipper from the wrong side of the road and crashed into the car.

Among the accused, the tipper driver Rasheed, had already planned the incident and accordingly parked the tipper near the petrol pump earlier. As the car in which Kalia Rafique was travelling arrived, the accused suddenly crashed the tipper into the car preventing it from escaping. Amidst this, the accused gang were tailing Rafique’s car in an Ertiga car as well. Immediately after the accident, Kalia and his associates realized that they were the targets and attempted to flee when Noor Ali and another accused open fire on Rafique with a pistol. Besides, they accused also chased the associates of Rafique and murdered them with swords, states the case registered in this connection at Ullal police station.

Mangaluru police had already arrested four in connection to this murder and had spread out a net to ensnare the other accused. It was alleged that during the incident, Mohammed Najeeb who was driving the car in which Rafique was travelling in was part of the murder attempt. Following the incident, he had gone underground in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ernakulum. Mangaluru CCB police who gained information regarding his whereabouts in Kerala, arrested the accused on Thursday and handed him over to Ullal police.

The operation was conducted under the guidance of police commissioner Dr| Harsha under the leadership of CCB inspector Shivaprakash R Naika with participation by ASI Kabbalraj H D and staffs.

It has been alleged that the accused Mohammed Najeeb was directly involved with the main accused Ziya and others in the planning of the murder. The accused is already an accused in 5 cases including robbery, cheating and others at Kasaragod, Bekal, Neeleshwar police stations in Kerala.