The Madurai city police have solved a woman missing case nearly after nine months.
The woman was allegedly murdered and the body packed in a polythene bag and buried behind a private chemical factory at Avaniapuram here, it come to light.
On September 9, 2013, Umarani (39), wife of Rajagopal of Kammakarai, Arapalayam, here had gone out with her neighbour Prema. However, she never returned home.
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Despite searching in many places, her husband Rajagopal, working in TANGEDCO as foreman, preferred a missing complaint with Karimedu police station on October 2, 2013.
Even as the police were on the lookout for Umarani, her husband approached the court seeking to search and produce her at the earliest.
A special team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (Madurai City) Manickavel discreetly probed the case by examining the key suspects recently, police said.
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Investigations suggested that Umarani had borrowed money from Prema and was unable to return it. Annoyed, Prema had taken Umarani to a place in Avaniapuram where she was introduced to a man, identified as Velmurugan. After a wordy altercation, she was beaten with some weapon and that led to her death.
Apprehending trouble, both Prema and Velmurugan had packed the body in a polythene bag and dumped it behind a huge garbage dump in the locality.
Though both Velmurugan and Prema were not to be found since then, the turning point in the case was the confession by a relative of Velmurugan. When police went in search of Prema, they realised she was close to Velmurugan, a native of Tirunelveli.
A special team, which went to Tirunelveli found Velmurugan was not there since the murder. To evade arrest, he had gone to Mumbai for the last five months. When he returned to the city a few days ago, the police secured him and he confessed to having committed the crime, police said.
In the presence of revenue officials, the polythene bag was recovered, in which, skeletal remains were seized. A hunt is on to secure Prema and the forensic examination may suggest more details, a senior police officer said.