A man, woman and a minor boy were arrested by the Perundurai police for the murder of a 72-year-old man. The three had plotted to kill the elderly man so that a scheduled family function, would be postponed.
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Police said the victim, Palanisamy of Pungambadi Paravalasu, was living with his wife Maragatham. The couple had two daughters. On April 20, Maragatham found Palanisamy charred to death outside their house. The police were alerted, and the the body was taken to the Government Erode Medical College and Hospital in Perundurai for an autopsy.
Maragatham’s brother Thangamani, 62, of Vannankattu Valasu, raised suspicions over the death and lodged a complaint with the police who registered a case of suspicious death. The postmortem examination revealed that Palanisamy was hacked in five places and then burnt to death.
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The police detained Thangamani’s wife, Masilamani, 35, who confessed to having committed the crime. Police said she was in a relationship with another man, Tamilan, 36, of Dharmapuri, who worked at the same spinning mill that her husband worked at. Tamilan was married and had a child. Police said Masilamani gave 10 sovereigns of gold jewellery and cash to Tamilan to repay a loan he had.
Recently, Thangamani and Masilamani’s daughter attained puberty, and Thangamani was preparing to hold a function for her, and the jewellery was needed. But Tamilan told Masilamani that he needed more time to return the jewellery. The two believed that the function could be only stopped by the news of the death of a close relative and so, planned to murder Palanisamy.
On April 19, Masilamani and Tamilan, along with her 17-year-old son, went to the house of Palanisamy and found him sleeping outside the house. They hacked him and poured kerosene over him and set him on fire.
The police on Thursday, April 24, arrested the three and sent Masilamani and Tamilan to prison while the teenager was lodged at a Borstal School.