Missing brothers had Rs 50 lakh with them when they left home: Father

KOCHI: Missing persons Bestin (now Yahya) and Bexan (now Eesa) had almost Rs 50 lakh plus with them when they left home saying they were going to Sri Lanka to start business.
“My sons wanted to go to Sri Lanka and set up carpet business there. Bexan wanted to import carpets from Iran and sell it in Sri Lanka and started frequenting the country. I gave him Rs 5 lakh for the business and he had another Rs 60 lakh that he got after selling his mother’s 5-acre property,” said his father Vincent, a businessman from Palakkad.From Rs 60 lakh, Bexan donated Rs 5 lakh to construct a mosque at Wadakkumcherry near Palakkad and some more money to an orphanage.
Vincent recently lodged a police complaint at Palakkad Town South Police station that his two sons Bestin (now Yahya) and Bexan (now Eesa) and their respective wives Merin (now Mariyam) and Nimisha (now Fathima), who were pregnant, have gone missing since May 15 or 16, 2016. They had left home claiming that they are going to Sri Lanka for business. Central intelligence agencies are now probing the “mysterious disappearance” of these people and many other youths from Kerala.
“Money is definitely not the reason that they turned to Islam. I gave my children the best possible education and ensured that they never had any financial problems,” said Vincent, who wanted them to join his business or start a new business.
But they refused saying that making profit was against Islam. Bexan expressed desire to start a goat farm as it was step closer to Islam and the father helped him set up a farm at five-acre land near Mangalam Dam area in Palakkad.