HONEY TRAP

NOTE: This story is based on the author's fiction. It doesn’t apply to any historical references or real-life incidents.

May 22, 2023

MALAPPURAM, KERALA

58-year-old hotel owner Muhammad Irshad took his car and went. But he didn’t even go to pick up his son, who is coming from Italy. He sent another driver for that and went to Kozhikode from Tirur.

When he went there, for a person who was working there for fifteen days, he gave the 15 days salary to 22-year-old Shibili, who belongs to Vallapuzha, Palakkad, and stopped him from working.

Two hours after this incident, in the afternoon, he left his hotel and went to De Casa in Eranhipalam. There, he booked two rooms in his name. After May 18, then the next few days, like May 19 and 20, by using Irshad’s son Althaf’s ATM, a lot of withdrawals were made. Since more than 2 lakhs were withdrawn unusually, he became suspicious.

"Is my father making this withdrawal? Or Someone else is using it to check?" Althaf called his father. But Irshad’s phone was switched off. Since it was an unusual thing, his son immediately went to the hotel and asked about his father. But after Irshad stopped Nagoor Meeran from working, he took his car and left the hotel, saying that was the last time they saw him.

The hotel staff said to Althaf, "Sir. We thought he was at his home." On May 22, immediately after, Althaf filed a missing complaint for Irshad, and SP Sujith assigned ASP Ayyappan to investigate the case. At the same time, 18-year-old Thaslima Banu, who worked at Irshad’s hotel, also went missing. Her mother, Zareena, filed a missing persons complaint on May 24.

Owner Irshad, staff Thaslima, and ex-staff Nagoor Meeran Since all of them went missing at the same time, everyone became suspicious. Even if Thaslima, Nagoor, and Irshad’s phones are switched on, Ayyappan will know their location immediately. But he didn’t expect it to happen this soon.

On the 24^th evening, Irshad’s phone was switched on for some minutes. When it was switched on, the signal was in Chennai. Immediately, with the Chennai police’s help, Ayyappan and the Malappuram police started searching there. When they were searching, Ayyappan arrested Thaslima and Nagoor with the help of Railway police, who planned to go to Assam. But Irshad was not there with them. Only the two were there.

"Where is Irshad? What happened to him?" asked Ayyappan.

Farhana and Nagoor’s answer shocked Ayyappan and the police. Now they went to Agali, which is located near the Attapady forest range. Ayyappan started searching the valley in the forest. When they were searching, a trolley bag was found between the rocks by the in-charge, SP Sujith’s team. When they took the trolley bag, they saw a decomposed dead body, and that too was in two parts.

Now Ayyappan and Sujith tied a rope and took the trolley bag out of the valley. After that, they sent Irshad’s body to an autopsy. In the autopsy report, it was confirmed that the dead man was Irshad.

"Sir. Two big wounds were there in Irshad’s head, and he died because of the fracture in the chest bone," said the doctor. Now Ayyappan has arrested another member involved in this case. His name is Afsajith, and he is from Kozhikode.

"Tell. Who killed Irshad in all three of you?" asked Ayyappan.

"All three of us killed Irshad, sir," said Thaslima, Nagoor, and Afsajith.

"But I had a huge part in it," said Nagoor.

Why did you kill Irshad within fifteen days of joining the job?" asked Ayyappan.

Nagoor looked at Ayyappan and started to tell the truth.

A FEW YEARS BACK

KOZHIKODE

Before Irshad opened a hotel in Kozhikode, he was a foreign taxi driver. He also had a supermarket. Since the supermarket didn’t go well, he closed it and came to India five years ago, where he built two hotels in Kozhikode and Tirur.

But due to COVID, he was in a position to close the hotel in Tirur. After that, he managed the hotel only in Kozhikode, and he made a good profit from that. That’s when Thaslima Banu joined the hotel a few years ago, and just three weeks before, she said, "Sir. I have a boyfriend named Nagoor. Since his family is also suffering financially like mine, kindly give him a job, sir."

As Thaslima is his friend’s daughter, he gave juice and food supplier work to Nagoor. Since Nagoor talked like a trusted person, Irshad saw him as a good staffer. But after that, he came to know that he acted like he was working before Irshad, and when he was not there, he just spent time without working.

The other staff didn’t like Nagoor’s behaviour, and they reported it to Irshad. But since he trusted Nagoor and was a friend of Thaslima, he didn’t say anything. But in a few days, Irshad came to know about Nagoor.

"Only after he came did money go missing in the hotel. So it will not be proper to have him at the hotel." Irshad had a thought, and on May 18 afternoon, he gave him 15 days salary for his work and fired him around 1:00 PM.

After this, Irshad went to the Hotel De Casa. Thirty minutes later, Nagoor also left the hotel. But in the fifteen days, he knew two things. One is that Irshad is making a good profit in the hotel, and the second is his UPI pin number. Since Irshad has a soft corner for Thaslima, he planned to misuse and snatch money from him.

Now Nagoor joined Thaslima and his 24-year-old friend Afsajith in this. All three of them joined together and planned a honey trap.

(A person who has a lot of fame in society, a lot of money, and big shots, a lot of criminals use women as a trap and make them fall into the trap, getting money through blackmailing.)

Nagoor asked Thaslima to call Irshad and said to book two rooms in the hotel De Casa. He asked her to tell him to meet him in private. Irshad also booked two rooms and went to the hotel De Casa, and the rooms he booked were G3 and G4.

Now Irshad went to room number G3. At the same time, Nagoor and Afsajith are in G4. They sent Thaslima to Irshad’s room to talk with him. When she was talking with him, Thaslima started executing her plan.

When Thaslima was alone with Irshad, she asked him to do a naked pose for a photo. According to their honey trap plan, if he accepts to take a photo, they plan to threaten him and get money. But what they thought didn’t happen there.

Irshad said to Thaslima, "I can’t do such a shameless thing. Do whatever you want." He tried to go out of the room. Hearing this, Nagoor and Afsajith thought their plan would fail, and if Irshad went out of the room, he may call the police. Now, they both entered the room where Thaslima and Irshad were.

Irshad was shocked to see Nagoor, and he couldn’t understand what was happening. But he understood a little bit of what was happening. Now all three of them started threatening, and Nagoor asked for five lakh rupees. But Irshad refused it.

When they were talking like this, Irshad took his mobile phone and tried to call someone. Nagoor tried to snatch it from him. Since he didn’t leave, Nagoor pushed him down.

If the situation went out of control for safety purposes, Thaslima had a hammer in her handbag. Likewise, Nagoor also had a knife with him. Now a normal conversation went off track. As soon as Irshad fell down, Nagoor took his knife and threatened to kill him if he didn’t give him the money.

Even after the blackmail, Irshad refused to give the money and started shouting. Thaslima took the hammer and gave it to Nagoor. Now he got the hammer and beat him in the head two times. It started bleeding heavily, and because of this, Irshad again fell down, and Afsajith kicked him heavily in the chest. After that, all three of them started beating and kicking him, and after a while, Irshad died there.

Since Afsajith kicked him barely in the chest, he died. Now all three of them, who were shocked to see him dead, thought of what to do next. Then they planned to dispose of his body and escape from there.

The next day, on May 19, they took Irshad’s car, which was standing outside of De Casa, and went to Kozhikode, which is three kilometres away. There he bought a trolley bag and came to the hotel again. They tried to keep his body in the trolley faster. But Irshad’s body didn’t fit in the trolley like they thought.

Again, Afsajith took the car at 12:30 in the afternoon and went to buy a trolley and an electric cutter. Thaslima, Nagoor, and Afsajith kept Irshad’s body in G4 and cut him into two pieces. Now the two pieces were kept separately in two trolley bags, and they fit perfectly in the bag. They did all this in the bathroom.

All three of them cleaned the bathroom very well. Exactly on May 19, at 3:15, they kept those two trolleys in Irshad’s car dickey and went to Attapady to dispose of the body as per Afsajith’s idea. When Nagoor loaded the trolley in the car, it was recorded on shop CCTV near the hotel. Like they planned, they went to Attappady, Agali’s 9^th hairpin bend, and stopped the car.

Nagoor got out of the car and started checking whether anyone was there. They checked whether any vehicles were coming. Confirming that no vehicle was coming first, they switched off the car headlights. Now the entire place was dark, like their future.

Nagoor and Afsajith both opened the car trunk and threw one of the trolley bags into the valley. In that silent place, when the trolley hit the rocks and fell down, that sound disturbed the resting birds in the forest. Now the birds started chirping, and that sound made them fear death. They threw another bag faster and sat down in the car.

Afsajith drove the car towards Malappuram faster. When they were driving like this, they ran out of petrol, so they stopped in a petrol bunk and used Irshad’s UPI pin for putting petrol in. After that, Nagoor dropped Thaslima off at her house.

The bloodstained dress, electric cutter, knife, duct tape, Irshad’s ATM card, and check book were wrapped in a towel and disposed of. Since we don’t need the car here after, we left the car near Cherundarutti when no one was looking, and both of us went to our houses.

Even though the car route was recorded on the hi-tech surveillance camera, Irshad's missing complaint came on May 22 only. But we did everything on May 19, and the police didn’t know what was happening.

When Nagoor went home, his mother asked him about the money he had.

For that, he said, "My owner gave me the money for my wedding with Thaslima, ma."

PRESENT

"After that, on May 24, I and Thaslima planned to escape to Assam. From Ottapallam, we went to Chennai by evening. That’s when Thaslima switched on Irshad’s phone and got caught by the police," said Nagoor. Their confessions shocked Ayyappan and the fellow police officers.

Meanwhile, reporter Adhithya investigated Irshad and his son Althaf, who said: "My father is a hard worker. With the money he earned for the last thirty years in the Gulf, he started a hotel and ran it successfully as a businessman. He provided a good education for me. Not only that, he helped everyone in need."

Wiping his tears, he continued to say, "Irshad was very good and affectionate with his staff."

But when Adhithya asked, "Why didn't you search him on May 18?"

Irshad’s relative said, "Irshad will often go on business trips like this. And since it will take over a week for him to return to Tirur, no one searched him immediately."

They further said: "Even if someone makes problems in his business, Irshad won’t get into a fight with them. He is a person who will handle the problem softly, both in business and family."

A businessman with no prior enemies, no one thought that he would die of a staff who worked only for fifteen days in his hotel.

After Adhithya investigated Althaf, SP Sujith investigated Thaslima for her mother, who said, "My daughter doesn’t have the guts to kill someone, sir. Nagoor must have brainwashed her to get involved in this."

When he investigated Thaslima’s neighbour about her, they said:

"Sir. Thaslima was a brilliant student. Since her father was addicted to alcohol, due to family problems, she couldn’t continue her studies, and that’s why she went to work. But when Thaslima was studying 7th grade, Nagoor entered her life. Because of that, some problems came up, and Thaslima filed a police complaint against Nagoor, and due to POCSO, he was in the process of going to jail. But her family took back the case after a formal conversation with Nagoor’s family. After all this, Thaslima liked him very much, sir. She will do anything for Nagoor. Because of this case, when they were about to marry before, the people in the mosque were against the registration of their marriage due to Nagoor and Thaslima’s idea to marry in another state or country, and the only thing that restricted them was the money, and Irshad’s murder was the effect of that. For the money, they made this honey trap, sir. But they didn’t expect to be caught in their own trap."

Meanwhile, Ayyappan and Sujith get ready to produce the accused—Thaslima, Nagoor, and Afsajith—in the Kerala High Court to get them punished for their crime.

EPILOGUE

This is a lesson for every criminal like Thaslima and Nagoor. Even though Irshad was a good person who helped everyone, no one compelled him to go to De Casa on May 18. He went against his will. But it is questionable why he went there. Because he booked a room, saying that it was for him and his son-in-law. We don’t know why he lied or what he tried to hide. But the thing that happened there was unexpected. A normal financial blackmail ended up being murder.

In custody, Thaslima said to Ayyappan, "We planned to get money, get married, and settle in some other state. We didn’t have any intention of killing Irshad. After I hit him, Afsajith kicked him, and that’s when the situation changed." A lot of honey trap murders have been happening in Kerala recently. Not only in Kerla, it’s happening in other states and other countries.

So Readers. What do you think about these people trapping honey? If we see one side, the victim went against his will. But the criminals change the victim’s mind and make them come by triggering their desire. Like this, there is another technique called cat fishing. Comment on what the catfishing method is.