Three men convicted of culpable homicide in Manjeri

The Manjeri additional sessions court has found three people guilty of culpable homicide, despite not finding the body of the victim, Shaba Sherif. This case is unusual as it marks one of the rare convictions where a body was not recovered. Key evidence in the trial included a hair sample from a car, which matched Sherif's DNA. The convicted individuals are Shaibin Ashraf, a 37-year-old businessman; his 39-year-old manager, Ponnakkaran Shihabudheen; and Shaibin's driver, Naduttodika Nishad, who is 32 years old. They were charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including kidnapping and destruction of evidence. The prosecution originally sought a murder charge, but the lack of a body complicated that effort. The judge will announce the sentence on Saturday. Nine others involved in the case, including Shaibin's wife, were found not guilty. According to the prosecution, Sherif was kidnapped in August 2019 and held captive for 14 months. The accused allegedly tortured him to learn the secret to a traditional medicine. It is believed that they later dismembered his body and disposed of it in the Chaliyar river.