Alleged cover-up around woman's ninth storey fall sparks protests, sacking of govt comms staff

Raudh Ahmed Zilal, 21, the man who was with the woman immediately before the fall, was taken into custody on Thursday night. Raudh was not charged, but the arrest warrant stated suspicion of his “involvement” in the woman's fall. 

The belated action and disclosures came after an angry youth-led protest on Wednesday night. About 500 people gathered outside the police criminal investigation building in Malé, rejecting the official account that the woman suffered an accidental fall due to her intoxicated state. Protesters accused police of a cover-up shielding “nepo babies” from justice.

Despite the police revelations and renewed investigations, protests in Malé continued to grow on Thursday night. Forensics teams were sent to the building, five days after the incident.

The fall occurred on April 18. The 21-year-old woman was found lying face down on a warehouse rooftop early on Friday morning, nearly three hours later. The authorities offered scant details, fuelling widely-shared speculation on social media that she had been thrown off a terrace and left to die after an alleged gang rape.

The woman has since been taken off ventilator support but remains in intensive care at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital.

In the days after the fall, names and photos of the group of young people alleged to have been partying with her on Thursday night were posted on X. The location of the first party was identified as the home of Transport Minister Mohamed Ameen’s nephews.  

The police provided the first information on the investigation late on Tuesday night, at an unusual closed-door briefing where journalists could not record or film. Reporters were shown CCTV footage of the woman on a staircase with another man, whose face was blurred. Police also disclosed the woman’s identity while refusing to identify other individuals, or the locations of their gatherings. 

The midnight briefing failed to convince an increasingly restive public. The media raised questions about gaps in the footage, the exact nature of the fall and the police's failure to arrest Raudh despite a positive drug test when he was questioned the following day.  

As collective anxiety over the unexplained fall intensified, a small group of young activists organised a sit-in outside the Henveiru police station at 8:30pm on Wednesday night. The crowd quickly grew, swelling to hundreds and blocking the capital’s main road as word spread on social media.

Protesters threw cash at the feet of officers guarding the entrance, to the police station, booing and jeering and chanting “Money, money, yes sir.” Police officers looked down from windows and the station's terrace as protesters made obscene gestures.

Protesters held placards asking “Why was she left to die?” and “Why did police rule out foul play at the initial investigation stage?” Others questioned the inaction of the Ministry of Family and Social Development, and the Human Rights Commission. 

As the crowd size peaked approaching midnight, Transport Minister Ameen posted a statement on X denying any knowledge of the party.

"To this date, I have not made a single phone call or contacted a single person within law enforcement or the government or anybody else to (a) obtain updates on investigation relating to the above matter, or (b) influence any investigation whatsoever, in order to distance myself from allegation of influence," he posted. "Social media posts to the contrary are completely baseless and false."

On Thursday morning, Ameen’s nephew Izdhyan Mohamed Maumoon, an undersecretary for strategic communications at the President's Office and one of the people at the party, was sacked. Daud Ahmed, older brother of Raudh and undersecretary for digital strategy at the President’s Office, was suspended. He also resigned as head of President Dr Mohamed Muizzu's Youth Advisory Committee. 

Police previously denied the involvement of any President’s Office political appointees, confirmed three journalists who attended the closed-door briefing.

Police Commissioner Ali Shujau himself appeared for Thursday morning’s press conference, where the police disclosed the identities of the eight other young people – including Raudh and Izdhyan – who were at Maandhooge Dhekunuge, the residence owned by Transport Minster Ameen and his three siblings.

According to police, the woman left the house with Raudh and two other men around 4am on Friday April 18th. All four went to the Kashivelige house on Ameenee Magu and spent around 15 minutes inside. The other two men left on a motorcycle. Raudh and the woman walked into a house on Buruzu Magu called Fentenoy.

Shujau said police did not wish to make the Fentenoy CCTV footage public. But the media’s failure to 'effectively communicate the facts' had forced the police’s hand, he suggested.

The televised CCTV footage shows the woman and Raudh on the staircase of Henveiru Fentonoy in an apparent state of intoxication. The pair appear to be intimately engaged on the seventh floor. An intruder alarm can be heard going off as they climb to the eighth floor and continue up to the ninth floor, which did not have a camera and leads to a locked terrace, according to police. 

Raudh comes down alone. The woman follows down to the eighth floor, appears to look for Raudh, tries the handle on an apartment, and goes back up. Raudh is then seen looking for her, knocking on a seventh floor apartment, calling out ‘Lulu’ and lifting himself up to peer through a stairwell window. A street camera shows Raudh continuing the search and going back into the building. He gave up after about 20 minutes, according to the police. 

In the ensuing press conference, journalists grilled the police chief about the shift in the investigative approach. Shujau admitted that publicly naming the victim had been a mistake. A review is underway to determine whether investigators followed protocols, he said. But Shujau could not provide clear answers on the failure to search the transport minister’s building or to seek legal action against suspects who refused consent for urine samples.

The police commissioner adamantly denied any political interference. Investigating officers are trained to independently assess situations and they would not be swayed by such connections, he insisted.

Further tests are underway to determine the suspected use of substances other than cannabis, police said. The initial screening was only capable of detecting cannabis, he claimed.

Addressing skepticism over the woman's purported fall from a narrow skylight and landing on the next door rooftop, the police deputy commissioner said the investigation will consider possible scenarios and try to do a reconstruction. This would take into account factors such as the height and width of the ninth-floor window, the woman’s physique and flexibility, as well as alternative possibilities such as whether she could have accessed the terrace through a locked door without a key. The findings will be shared in the next press briefing, police said.

Protests continued on Thursday night, with crowds growing and blocking the main thoroughfare in Malé. The woman's cousin addressed the crowd, accusing police of blaming the victim, violating her dignity and protecting the others involved.

"Justice is not for the poor. It is for the nepo babies," she declared.

  

12:00 - 12:30am: A group of about eight people gather at Maandhooge Dhekunuge

3:40am: Four people, including Raudh and the woman, leave the house.

4:00am: The four arrive at Kashiveli in front of STELCO, the residence of one of the young men in the group. They spend about 15 minutes there.

4:15 am: All four leave. Raudh and the woman walk down Ameenee Magu towards Kalafaanu School. The others leave together on a motorcycle.

4:30am: CCTV footage from a camera outside Avid College shows the woman walking unsteadily, barefoot, along Buruzu Magu. She is seen touching the wall for support and enters the Fentenoy house alone. A few seconds later, Raudh passes by on the left side of Buruzu Magu, near parked motorcycles. He appears unaware that the woman was inside Fentenoy. A man on a motorcycle stops and briefly speaks with Raudhu. The woman emerges from Fentenoy and searches for Raudh. Both enter the building together.

4:30 to 4:50am: Raudh and the woman are active in the stairwells of the seventh, eighth and ninth floors of the Fontenoy building of nine floors plus a terrace. Both appear intoxicated and disoriented (some cameras in the building record sound when detecting movement). Police claimed they did not enter any apartments in the building or meet with anyone inside.

4:50am: The woman is wearing Raudh’s t-shirt. They talk on the ninth floor staircase. She goes alone up the stairs that leads to the terrace (which was locked, according to the police). Raudh goes back down the stairs. The woman returns to find Raudh gone. Her movemens appear hurried. She touches the door of two apartments (one vacant, one occupied by a family). She hurries back up the stairs leading to the terrace. 

4:50 to 4:52am: A loud bang is suddenly heard. No camera was positioned to capture the actual fall. Raudh was between the seventh and eighth floors. 

5:10am: After spending 10 to 15 minutes searching for her on different floors, calling "Lulu," checking the skylight window on the 8th floor, and going up the stairs to the terrace, Raudh emerges out of the house, searches on the road and eventually leaves. According to police, Raudh told his friends about the incident, but due to his condition, no one believed him.

- Family shares complaints with police about the handling of the case (according to media reports citing family sources)

- Police allegedly did not provide adequate cooperation

- Police tries to take her statement despite doctors saying she was not fully responsive

- Police Inspector Muhammad Samihu calls the family and says they received information that the woman was conscious

- Family requests a lawyer be present for any statement, which police initially resisted

- Doctors at IGMH had requested sexual assault testing be done, but it wasn't performed due to claimed unavailability of the Family Protection Unit

- Police and Family Protection Unit contacts the family to conduct sexual assault testing (five days after the incident)

- IGMH gynecology team informs the family that such tests have limited usefulness after 72 hours

- Family tried to access her medical file when taking her for a CT scan but was allegedly prevented by hospital staff

- Police offer first update on the investigation at closed-door press briefing