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Good deed costs Emirati poet his life

SHARJAH — The Sharjah Police yesterday arrested a 26-year-old Sri Lankan for murdering a renowned UAE national poet on Monday.

by

Afkar Ali Ahmed

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Published: Fri 14 Jul 2006, 11:53 AM

Last updated: Sat 4 Apr 2015, 7:11 PM

The murder followed a quarrel between the two, which led the culprit to run over the victim by a 4x4 vehicle, according to police sources.

The source said that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at the Sharjah Police received a call on Tuesday at 7.30pm, reporting that a body was found in a deserted area between Al Dhaid and Suhaila in the emirate of Sharjah.

When the police reached the scene of the crime, they found that the victim was the poet Khalifa bin Mitrrif from Al Ain. His body was found on the ground, and his Land Cruiser was parked half a kilometre away.

The police said that following a call they received, a team of officers, led by Brigadier Abdullah Mubarak bin Amri, found the body of the 56-year old poet, who was also a businessman. The police lifted fingerprints from the crime scene, leading the CID to apprehend various suspects connected to the victim.

During interrogation, the suspects gave further evidence pointing to the accused.

After intensifying the investigation, police were able to specify that the accused was staying at a farm in Al Dhaid, where he was arrested and taken to the Al Dhaid Police Station.

The accused — identified only as R. K. Krishna — initially denied all charges, but after being confronted with evidence, confessed to murdering Khalifa by running him over with the his own Land Cruiser.

The police investigation also revealed that the accused had met the victim just two days before the crime, when Khalifa had stopped to help him fix his bicycle, after it got stuck in the sand beside one of the desert roads.

The victim then suggested to Krishna to carry out personal work for him in return for some money.

Accordingly, he gave the accused his mobile phone number. It was found that Krishna made several calls to the victim regarding the promised work.

On Monday night, Khalifa called Krishna and asked him to come to meet him, so that he could take him to his farm where he was expected to do the job.

On their way to the farm in Al Dhaidh, Krishna asked the victim to give him the money in advance. When the victim refused to give an advance on the job, a fight erupted between them in the car.

The two men then got out of the vehicle, but Krishna quickly got behind the wheel and attempted to flee the scene. Khalifa ran after him, which provoked the accused to reverse the vehicle, running over the victim.

Then, he drove the vehicle half a kilometre away from the body, and abandoned it.

It was revealed later that he was already booked on a flight today (Friday).

The police found out that he had made the travel preparations even before he met the victim and committed the crime.

Though his travel plan had nothing to do with the murder, it revealed that he was eager to procure some money before leaving the country.

Based on these confessions, the police referred the accused to the Sharjah Public Prosecution.

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