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Maid killer gets death in Kerala

A civil contractor, who murdered his 14-year-old maid servant by slicing her body into three pieces eight years ago, was on Thursday awarded death penalty by a court in Kerala.
K C Hamza, 52, a native of Kasargod district, was found guilty of the brutal murder of Safiya by the district sessions court. Hamza's wife Maimoona, 48, has been sentenced to six years imprisonment for illegally confining the girl and shielding the accused while their relative M Abdulla, 48, to three years in jail for destroying the evidence in the case.
The murder of Safiya, who hails from Madikeri in Karnataka state, took place in December 2006. Hamza had confessed to the police that he had cut the girl into pieces after she suffered burns during cooking and buried the body in a pit near a check dam he was building in Goa.
The convict had earlier claimed that Safiya had gone missing from his flat in Goa. The Kasargod police that took up the case following a missing complaint lodged by Safiya's father in December 2006 could not get any clue about the girl for more than two years.
The Crime Branch, which was given the investigation following a prolonged agitation spearheaded by an action committee, unravelled the mystery in eight months. With the help of forensic experts they found that the girl was murdered. The crime branch team later unearthed the chopped skeletal remains of Safiya from the dam site.
Principal sessions judge Justice M J Shaktidharan awarded the maximum punishment to Hamza with the observation that a man who had murdered a 14-year-old girl so brutally was dangerous to society. The judge has also imposed a fine of Rs1 million on him. Of this Rs.800, 000 will go to the family of the deceased.
The court acquitted Moidu Haji, 59, who supplied the girl to the contractor, and Kerala police official, A. Gopalakrishnan, 57, who allegedly helped in scuttling the case while being posted with the Adhur police station, for want of evidence.
Safiya was handed over to Moidu by their parents as he promised that Hamza would give money to marry off their daughter. For the first one year Safiya had worked in Hamza's house at Kasargod and later was taken to Goa after he secured the contract for building the dam.
According to prosecution, the girl had sustained brutal torture and burn injuries for several months before her death. Forensic examination had proved that the girl was alive when her body was sliced into three.

• India