Friday
26th Apr 2024
Dhivehi Edition
Police guarding the area where Azhan's body was found.
The dead body of a man believed to be Mohamed Azhan, the 24-year-old missing from Hulhumale’, was found decomposing two days ago and the public have has quickly begun to find fault with the investigative tactics of Maldives Police of handling the missing person’s case.
Azhan was reported missing on September 18.
The police said that his body was found around 5:45pm on October 2, during the investigation of Azhan’s missing person case. The body was found in a severely decomposed state, within the bushes opposite to the Hulhumale’ Water Theme Park development site.
Passersby have reported foul smells from around that area for days. Seeing that Hulhumale is a small place in comparison to international metropolitan areas, the law enforcement has been heavily criticized for their failure to find the missing man earlier than the 14 days that it took them.
Opposition party’s parliamentary group leader and former Minister of Defense, Adam Shareef Umar tweeted that while the police admitted to having spotted Azhan on CCTV footage, near the area where his body was found, he wondered why the police waited so long to search the area.
Adam Shareef stated that it was highly irresponsible to put off searching the area despite the smell complaints and police owed the public a proper explanation.
During the news conference held to brief the press, police said that they were tracking Azhan’s movements by checking CCTV footage of the area and they were searching the area where they lost track of Azhan. and their officers noticed a foul smell which ultimately led to the dead body.
He was last spotted exiting a Hiya Tower, in Hulhumale’ Phase 2, at dawn on the day he went missing. Then he was seen getting into a car to go near the Redbull Ground in Hulhumale’ Phase 1.
Addressing the issue, MDP’s former Deputy Secretary General, Aishath Aniya said that failing to find a missing man from the area where he was last spotted and remained decomposing for such a long time was “willful” negligence.
Another person tweeted that if anyone they know or care about went missing, they will be conducting the investigation themselves as the police have proven themselves incompetent to perform their duties.
Multiple people have asked the question of who the police were “” protecting and serving”, hinting at their incompetence to carry out their responsibilities.
Another tweet read police is paid not to bring the dead bodies of their loved ones, but rather to bring them alive and to do everything in their power to make it happen. However, the person said that the police have failed every time.
Azhan’s body is to be sent abroad for postmortem.