:Chekannur Maulavi

{{short description|Indian founder of a new religious organization}}

P. K. Mohammed or Chekannur Maulavi

(born in 1936) was an Indian modern Islamicist from Chekannur, Malappuram district of Kerala, India.{{cite book |last1=Roland E. Miller |title=Mappila Muslims of Kerala: A Study in Islamic Trends |year=1992 |publisher=Orient Longman |page=339 |isbn=9780863112706 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbTXAAAAMAAJ&q=chekannur+maulavi |access-date=1 April 2020}} He is the founder of the Quran Sunnath Society.{{cite news |title=Meet Jamitha Teacher, India's first woman Imam |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/meet-jamitha-teacher-india-s-first-woman-imam-1155342-2018-01-27 |access-date=6 April 2020 |agency=India Today}} He disappeared on 29 July 1993. His death is uncertain.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/chekannur-moulavi-case-accused-let-off/article25231374.ece|title=Chekannur Moulavi case: accused let off|date=16 October 2018|work=The Hindu|access-date=2019-10-26|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}

{{Infobox person

| name = P.K. Mohammed

| title=

| birth_date = {{Birth year|1936}}

| disappeared_date = {{disappeared date and age|1993|07|29|1936|df=y}}

| disappeared_place =

| disappeared_status = {{Missing for|1993|07|29}}

| birth_place = Chekannur, Malappuram, Kerala, India

| known_for =

}}

Disappearance and investigation

The CBI took over the case in 1996, and in 2000 arrested two members of the ultra orthodox Muslim sect under suspicion of murder.{{Cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/2000/12/18/stories/0418211r.htm|title=Moulavi case: CBI closing in on main culprit?|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329135405/http://www.thehindu.com/2000/12/18/stories/0418211r.htm|work=The Hindu|date=2000-12-18|archive-date=29 March 2018}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20070520101125/http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/27/stories/2005072713660400.htm 'Court orders trial of Kanthapuram']{{cite book |last1=Girja Kumar |title=The Book on Trial: Fundamentalism and Censorship in India |year=1997 |page=34 |publisher=Har-Anand Publications |isbn=9788124105252 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-KUICFfA00C&pg=PA34 |access-date=1 April 2020}}

The case was hampered by the disappearance of several witnesses, whose property was seized when they fled abroad rather than appear to testify in 2008.[http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEX20080329231818 Chekannur Maulavi murder case: CBI court orders confiscation
of assets of witnesses - Newindpress.com]{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Mohammed’s wife filed a petition seeking to arraign A.P. Aboobacker Musaliyar as a murder suspect through her lawyer, Advocate S.K. Premraj which was allowed. The court had found that Mohammed’s body was disposed of in some mysterious manner so as never to be recovered,{{Cite web |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article804461.ece |title=The Hindu : States / Kerala : Maulavi case accused gets double life imprisonment |website=The Hindu |access-date=2010-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020184545/http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article804461.ece |archive-date=2012-10-20 |url-status=dead }} which was dismissed by High Court later

A Decision Bench of the Kerala High Court in 2018 acquitted the first accused.{{Cite news |date=16 October 2018 |title=Chekannur Moulavi case: accused let off |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/chekannur-moulavi-case-accused-let-off/article25231374.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213134930/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/chekannur-moulavi-case-accused-let-off/article25231374.ece |archive-date=2023-02-13 |access-date=2019-08-19 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}} With this, all accused in the case, including the first accused V. V. Hamsa, who had been sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment in 2010 have been let off.{{Cite web |others=Paragraph 3 |title=Prime accused in Chekannur Moulavi case acquitted |url=https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2018/10/15/chekannur-moulavi-case-prime-accused-acquitted.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240614090256/https://www.onmanorama.com/content/mm/en/kerala/top-news/2018/10/15/chekannur-moulavi-case-prime-accused-acquitted.amp.html |archive-date=2024-06-14 |access-date=2022-03-11 |website=OnManorama |quote=With this, all accused in the case have been let off.}}{{Cite web|url=https://keralakaumudi.com/en/news/news.php?id=3495&u=hc-acquits-prime-accused-in-chekannur-maulavi-murder-case-pv-hamza-3495|title=HC acquits prime accused in Chekannur Maulavi murder case|work=Kamudi Online}} Even Chekannur Moulavi's death could not be proved.

In popular culture

His disappearance is the subject of a 2009 documentary, Ore Oru Chekannur.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090415184709/http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/11/stories/2009041152510300.htm Documentary on Chekannur Maulavi]