The owner of H. Fentenoy has denied the claims by the Maldives Police Service (MPS) that they had informed authorities not to allow journalists into the house where 21-year-old Hawwa Yumnu Rasheed fell from, in the early hours of April 18.
Speaking to RaajjeTV, Shimaz Abdulla Rasheed, who spoke on behalf of the house owners, said that there had been no consultation between the house owners and the police regarding allowing journalists into the building, and that the police were lying about this matter.
After stating in a press conference on Thursday that they would work to arrange for journalists to enter the house, the police sent a message to the media saying that when they consulted with the house owners about allowing journalists to enter the house, the owners had said journalists would not be allowed in. However, responding to this, Shimaz said that the police had lied and that he only learned about this from the media.
The police institution said they would try to allow journalists in to show the scenes of the places where the parties were active, as various stories were spreading on social media regarding Yumnu's “fall”.
According to information provided by the police to the media, Yumnu fell from a stairwell window on the ninth floor of H. Fentenoy.
At the press conference on Thursday, the police also released CCTV footage showing the stairwell of Fentenoy. This was footage that was shown at a previously held confidential press briefing. However, it is notable that the footage shown on Thursday included some additional scenes that were not shown in the video footage presented at the confidential meeting.
The CCTV footage publicized by the police shows that Yumnu is believed to have fallen around 4:52am on Friday. The video shows how events unfolded from the moment Yumnu and Raud entered the house. The video footage publicized by the police also shows Raud searching for Yumnu after she “fell”.
The police said that the scenes shown in the video depict how events unfolded that night, and that as there are still matters to be investigated, the work of examining and investigating further is currently underway.