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Sunday 27 Apr 2025
LOCAL EDITION
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LOCAL EDITION
The eight people who were with Mariyam Yumnu before she fell from a building in Male' on April 18, 2025.
Police said on Saturday that they have seized the mobile phones of nine people in the investigation into the case of a young woman who fell from a building in Male’ last weekend.
21-year-old Mariyam Yumnu was found injured on the rooftop of a warehouse in the Henveiru district at around 07:30 am on April 18. According to the police, their investigation uncovered that she fell from a skylight on the ninth-floor stairwell of the adjacent building, H. Fentenoy, but that there was no evidence of foul play.
But before her fall, she had been part of a group of at least nine individuals who were at Ma. Maandhooge Dhekunuge- for a party, where they are believed to have possibly consumed drugs and alcohol.
There soon emerged allegations of a police coverup after it became known that the individuals involved have family links to influential figures, including a cabinet minister and a diplomat. The police only named Yumnu, and did not name the other persons of interest in the case, including Raudh, until six days later.
Meanwhile, the house where the group held the “party” was confirmed as the family residence of Transport Minister Mohamed Ameen, who admitted that two of his nephews were among the group of individuals involved, but denied he knew anything about what he described as the “gathering.”
A police spokesperson said on Saturday that they have seized the mobile phones of nine individuals in the case.
But the spokesperson did not specify whose phones were seized.
In a press briefing on Thursday, the police said they were treating eight individuals – all of whom had been in the “party” with Yumnu – as persons of interest in the case. They are:
The same day, the police arrested Raudh, who had been with Yumnu in the last moments before her fall, for lack of cooperation. They also filed for court warrants to search the other two residences that Yumnu had been in before she went to Fentenoy – Ma. Maandhooge Dhekunu and G. Kashiveli.
The police have said that both Yumnu and Raudh were heavily intoxicated at the time, and had both tested positive for narcotics. Clips of CCTV footage shared by police show Yumnu appeared to have trouble walking, and even fell down on the ground at one point.
The court order issued on Friday for Raudh’s remand extension by five days shows investigators believe Yumnu and Raudh had argued before she fell – something the police hadn’t mentioned in two press briefings held in the wake of the incident – a closed-door one on Tuesday and the open one on Thursday.
It also says that when questioned shortly after Yumnu’s fall, Raudh had responded with “I don’t know where she is” and “I think she fell.”
The case of Yumnu, who spent nearly three hours on the rooftop of a warehouse before a neighbor saw her and she was rescued, has sparked serial protests in Male’. The protestors, a vast majority of them young men and women, have been demanding justice for her, and the resignation of top government and police officials over the alleged coverup, including Transport Minister Ameen, Home Minister Ali Ihusan, and Commissioner of Police Ibrahim Shujau.
They have also demanded a free and fair investigation into the case, including the arrest and prosecution of everyone who had been with her before her fall, and an inquiry into police conduct in the case.
