MANGALURU: A court sentenced three accused to life imprisonment and a fine in the murder of two Malayali youths in Mangaluru in connection with a gold smuggling deal. Munafat Munafar Sanaf (35), a native of Cherkala, Muhammad Irshad (35), a native of Tipu Nagar on Anangoor TV Station Road, and Muhammad Safwan (34), a native of Anangoor, were sentenced to life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 each by the Mangaluru District Principal Sessions Court.

The three will have to serve an additional three months in prison if the fine remains unpaid. The court verdict came in the murder case of Nafeer (24) of Saidar Pally in Thalassery and Faheem (25) of Thrikkovil in Kuttichira in Kozhikode.

The court found the accused guilty on April 10th. The case, which was scheduled to be pronounced on the 16th, was postponed again to Saturday.

The murder took place on July 1, 2014, in a flat in Attavar, Mangaluru. The bodies were found a week later, buried on a hillside in Maruthadukam in Kundankuzhy, under Bedadka station limits in Kasaragod.

The case: Instead of selling the gold smuggled from the Gulf to the smuggling gang, the two Malayalees gave it to the three accused. In fear of the smuggling gang finding out the truth, the three accused summoned the youths to their flat in Manguluru and brutally killed them.

The Mangaluru City Crime Branch conducted an investigation and arrested the accused based on a tip-off. The accused had buried the bodies and planted coconut saplings on the land they had purchased in Maruthadukam. The accused even confessed to abandoning the plastic bag carrying corpses in the Chandragiri river.