The Tiruchi Rural Police have decided to send samples from the skeletal remains of five bodies exhumed on the confession of the alleged “serial killer,” T. Sappani, near Tiruverambur here on Saturday, to Chennai for DNA test to ascertain their identity.
Samples, which have been carefully preserved by a medical team, will be sent along with that of very close blood relatives of the deceased through the court.
Although the kin of some of the victims had established the identity from the dress found at the spot where the bodies were exhumed, the police have nevertheless proposed to go in for DNA testing to ascertain the identity of the dead in a scientific manner, said a police officer.
With the three-day police custody of Sappani, who confessed to murdering eight persons including an aged woman ending on Monday, investigators are planning to seek his custody again for a couple of days. This was because of the sensational nature of confessions and the gravity of the offences, said the sources.
Going by Sappani’s confessions, the police said two more bodies might have been dumped a few km from Krishnasamudram where the skeletal remains of five persons were exhumed on Saturday.
A team of police personnel carried out combing operation a few km from the village on Sunday on the basis of the claims made by Sappani. However, nothing could be found during the combing operation, an officer said.
The skeletal remains exhumed on Saturday were suspected to be that of Sathyanathan, Thekkan, Kumaresan, Vijay Victor and Kokila.
