Eight persons, including two lawyers who were secured by the Coimbatore district police in the last two days, for their alleged involvement in a triple murder on Neelambur bypass road on the outskirts of the city on Wednesday night, were lodged in the Coimbatore and Salem prisons on Saturday.
Police said the triple murder was in retaliation to the killing of Madras High Court lawyer M.K. Raja near the Sannapuram railway level-crossing near Tiruvidaimarudur in Thanjavur district on April 3, 2015. Mr. Raja is the brother of a top Pattali Makkal Katchi functionary.
Denying any political motive, police said they have secured 12 suspects in connection with it so far and a few more could also be arrested.
The accused were booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons or means), 341 (wrongful restraint), 307 (attempt to murder) and 302 (murder), of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 25(1)(d) and 27, of the Indian Arms Act.
On Saturday, the eight persons were taken to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for health check-up and produced before Judicial Magistrate-VII of the Coimbatore Combine Court T.V. Hemant Kumar. Based on his direction, they were lodged in the Coimbatore and Salem Central Prisons under judicial custody, till September 11.
Police said they were yet to arrest the prime accused, Mohan Ram (35) of Dindigul.
