A lawyer, suspected of murder and misappropriation, and his wife were arrested by the Kovalam Beach Police near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on Thursday. Two teams of the Coimbatore City Police had gone there to take custody of the couple who were found to be with two children.
According to police sources, E.T. Rajavel and Mohana stayed at various hotels at T. Nagar and Egmore in Chennai between December 1 and 3. Leaving their multi-utility vehicle near one of the hotels, they hired a car from a travel agency and left for Kovalam on Thursday.
A Coimbatore City Police team that was combing hotels and lodges in Chennai found the car and put the vehicle under surveillance. Rajavel had phoned one of his junior lawyers and directed him to take possession of the car. The junior lawyer was picked up by the police when he came to take the car. When questioned about Rajavel’s whereabouts, he gave the name of a travel agency. The police obtained the mobile number of the driver who had taken Rajavel and his wife to Kerala.
Even as the police team called up the driver around 11.45 a.m. on Thursday to alert him about the fugitives, Rajavel suspected something amiss and tried to escape on foot. The driver chased him.
The Kovalam Beach Police personnel secured both of them. Upon questioning, the driver told the police that Rajavel was wanted on charges of murder. The Kovalam Beach Police detained Rajavel and immediately alerted their counterparts in Tamil Nadu. The Coimbatore City Police suspected Rajavel’s hand in the murder of one of his clients, Ammasai (45) of Rathinapuri who went missing in 2011. He had allegedly killed her to pass her off as his wife Mohana, who was suspected to have involved in a Rs.12-crore multi-level marketing firm fraud. The police also suspected his involvement in the murder of Manivel, a realtor from Nanjundapuram Road in Ramanathapuram here and getting his 26 cents of land registered in the name of Mohana. Rajavel was also suspected to be involved in the disappearance of a retired government employee Visalakshi who went missing seven years ago. She was living alone and had 96 cents of land in her name at Nanjundapuram valued at crores.
