The CB-CID police, in the presence of revenue officials, on Friday exhumed the body of farm labourer R. Mannaar, which was allegedly buried by a farm owner and his family after the labourer got electrocuted seven years ago in an illegal electric fence erected around the farm.
Farm labourer R. Mannaar, 32, of Devipattinam under Sivagiri police station limits, who went to a sugarcane field close to his village for work on January 7, 2012, did not return home.
When his wife Mary and other relatives searched for him, they could not get any information about Mannaar for several days.
As her complaint with the Sivagiri police did not yield any information about her husband, Ms. Mary filed a case in the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court in September 2018 seeking direction to transfer the case for investigation by the CB-CID.
Since her prayer was allowed, the CB-CID began the investigation five months ago and found that Mannaar, who got electrocuted on accidentally coming in contact with a live electric fence erected in the adjoining farm owned by Panneer of the same area on the fateful day, was buried inside Panneer’s farm with the help of his wife P. Pappa and son-in-law Balagurunathan, 36. Panneer had erected electric fence around the farm to check invasion of wild animals into his farm situated on the lap of the Western Ghats.
The CB-CID team, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Anilkumar and Inspector of Police Ulagarani, arrested Pappa and Balagurunathan as Panneer died last year.
Against this backdrop, the Mannaar’s skeleton was exhumed on Friday by the CB-CID team in the presence of revenue officials.
As the accused could not exactly locate the spot where they had buried the body seven years ago, it took little over seven hours for the CB-CID team to retrieve the skeleton.
“The skull will be sent for superimposing to establish the identity of the victim while DNA mapping will be done with the help of the bones,” said Mr. Anilkumar.
