The Cubbon Park police on Monday arrested three men in connection with the case of missing advocate Appuswamy Sriranga Gounder (59), brother of E. Radhakrishnan, former Member of Parliament from Tamil Nadu. The accused allegedly abducted Gounder from Tirupur and killed him in Mandya. The police recovered the body from a storm-water drain and sent it for autopsy. Led by Inspector of Police S. Badrinath, the team, with the help of its counterparts from Chennai, arrested Mohammed Junaid Abdul Jabbar (25) of Gadi Khana Mohalla in Chamarajanagar, Yeshwanth Shankar (22) of Tavarekere in Mandya and Girish Ramu (24) of Bindiganavile village in Nagamangala, Mandya.
Some ATM cards and mobile phones have been seized the suspects. Gounder, from Chittipuram in Tirupur district, went missing on February 11. His relatives filed a complaint at the Kunnathur police station. With clues pointing towards Karnataka, the Tamil Nadu police contacted Bangalore's Cubbon Park police and told them that Gounder's ATM cards had been used at hotels, petrol bunks and commercial establishments in different parts of the city, including Mahatma Gandhi Road. The Cubbon Park police traced the users of the cards. “We detained one and interrogated him. Based on his confession, we solved the case,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (Cubbon Park sub-division) Devaraju told The Hindu . The alleged mastermind,behind the crime, Junaid Abdul Jabbar, was a client of Gounder, a police officer said. He is wanted by the Chamarajanagar police in Karnataka and Talawadi police in Tamil Nadu for a series of robberies. “Aware that Mr. Gounder was from an affluent family, Junaid hatched a plot to kill him and rob him of his belongings. He, with the others, lured Gounder to Mysore on February 11. They murdered him in his car en route to Mandya and dumped the body in the storm-water drain,” said the officer.
The suspects allegedly weighed the body down with a boulder after emptying his pockets. During interrogation, the three reportedly confessed that they had strangulated Mr. Gounder, according to the police. The suspects have been handed over to the Kunnathur police.
