A 30-year-old man, V. Karuppasamy of Parthibanur, was found murdered with a stab injury inside a van along the Madurai-Tiruchi highway behind the High Court Bench premises late on Sunday night.
The police said that the omni van in which the Singapore returnee was found dead was stolen from K. Pudur in the city on March 26.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters), in-charge of Law and Order, Rajarajan, inspected the scene of crime. The man had a deep stab injury on his left chest.
A watchman of a residential layout along the four way highway had noticed the van parked on its approach road on Sunday morning when he was leaving for home.
He grew suspicious when he found the van parked at the same spot when he returned for night duty at around 10 p.m. On noticing a man lying in the car, he alerted the police.
Mr. Rajarajan said that the person and motive behind the murder was under investigation.
The police were trying to identify as to how he was found inside the stolen vehicle, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Anna Nagar), B. Sakthivel, said.
Police sources said that the Pudur police had issued a Community Service Register receipt for the stolen van on March 28.
Karuppasamy, who was a driver in Singapore, had returned only in January. The family was making arrangement for his marriage. However, he had come to Madurai on March 25 with a minor girl, one of his relatives. He was staying with his friend in the city.
Police are questioning the girl and trying to identify the friend with whom the deceased was staying.