Around 6 pm on February 24, a 23-year-old stepped out of an autorickshaw in front of the Venjaramoodu police station in Thiruvananthapuram rural district. He approached the front desk and calmly said, “I have come after killing five people.” At first, the policemen on duty dismissed his claim as nonsense. However, when the youth persisted, police teams swiftly mobilised and headed to the crime scenes, spread across three villages.
The following hours would reveal the shocking details of five brutal murders. After first attacking his mother, Shemy, a cancer patient, Afan locked his house in Perumala village and rode a motorbike to his grandmother Salma Beevi’s house in Pangode, 16 kilometres away, carrying a hammer in his backpack. After killing his 92-year-old paternal grandmother to death, the next target was an aged couple – his uncle Latheef, 69, a retired CRPF officer, and his wife Sajitha Beevi, 59 – who lived 10 kilometres away. Both were murdered in the same way, suffering fatal head injuries.
After that, he brought his 19-year-old girlfriend, Farsana, from her home in S N Puram to his house, where his mother was hanging on for life. After killing Farsana, Afan waited for his 13-year-old brother Afsan to return from school, only to hit him with a hammer, killing him. The cops are still unable to identify the motivation.
South Zone Inspector General Shyam Sunder stated on February 25, “We are still unclear about what triggered these murders. The accused had to be hospitalised after his surrender, as he ingested poison at the police station. As a result, we couldn’t take a detailed statement from him. He mentioned a financial crisis, but we need to verify all the information. At this point, the murders cannot be connected to his relationship with the woman (Farsana).”
The IG stated that, based on initial observations, the accused had not exhibited any signs of behavioural issues. “He used the same weapon to target all of his victims, and the hammer has been recovered,” he added.
According to the police, Afan first strangled and bludgeoned his mother after Afnan had gone to school, leaving the house believing she was dead. She is now hospitalised in critical condition. His next target was his paternal grandmother, Salma Beevi, who lived alone in Pangode village. Her husband had passed away 23 years ago, and the couple had 11 children. Every evening, one of her six daughters would stay with her overnight and leave in the morning after preparing food. On February 24, it was Majitha’s turn to stay with her mother. When she reached home around 5.30 pm, Majitha was shocked to see Salma lying in a pool of blood. She raised an alarm and locals rushed in.
Social worker Shajahan Pangode recalled, “I went to the house with the police, who were initially baffled by the murder. There were no signs of a struggle. Someone tried to reach Salma’s son, Latheef, but he wasn’t answering the calls. His neighbor was notified and went to the house, where he found Latheef and his wife, Sajitha, dead. It was later that we learned about Afan’s confessions.” Laila Beevi, a local panchayat member, stated, “Latheef had previously spoken to Afan about his affair, but we are unsure if that triggered his actions.”
On February 25, police retrieved CCTV footage from outside Salma’s house, showing Afan arriving on a bike around 1 pm and leaving within 10 minutes. Thaha, a relative of Farsana, recalled, “At around 3:30 pm, I saw Farsana leaving her house, telling me she was heading to tuition. A few meters from her home, Afan picked her up. Later, we learned that her body was found at his house.”
Farsana’s family was aware of her relationship with Afan. “We were not opposed to it,” he said. The teenager was in her first year of college. While Farsana was being murdered at Afan’s Perumala home, his brother Afsan was at school. After returning home around 4 pm, Afsan found the gate locked and went to a neighbour’s house. He returned shortly after, where Afan let him in, offered him hotel food, and delivered the fatal blow.
Nazar, a neighbour, recalled, “Afan left again after locking the gate. The police had to break it open. We discovered Afsan’s body in the drawing room, while their mother was found in a critical condition in another room. However, we never expected to find another body—Farsana’s—inside the house. After Afan confessed to killing her, the police conducted another search and found her body.”
According to the police, Afan had enrolled in a degree course but remained unemployed. His father, Abdul Raheem, had reportedly accumulated financial debt while working in Saudi Arabia and had not returned to the family for the past seven years due to travel restrictions linked to the liability.
“Raheem cannot come back because of the travel restrictions caused by the debt. The family had planned to sell their house to settle it. Despite not having a job, Afan led a lavish lifestyle and frequently pressured other family members for money. He was an introverted person with few friends,” said his neighbour, Shaji.
