The DGP on Monday transferred the probe into the recent murders of former Tirunelveli Mayor Uma Maheshwari, her husband Murugasankaran and domestic help Mariammal to the CB-CID.
Earlier, the police said that they had confirmed that Madurai-based DMK functionary Seeniammal’s son Karthik alias Karthikeyan, who was detained a day earlier, had a hand in the crime. Police said efforts were on to identify his accomplices, recover the weapons used and the valuables stolen.
One of the special teams led by Inspector Periyasamy that returned to Tirunelveli empty-handed after grilling Seeniammal a couple of days ago, picked up Karthik on Sunday at Thoothukudi. When the police analysed the footage captured by surveillance cameras fitted at two places in the vicinity of the scene of crime, they zeroed in on a sports utility vehicle which had been parked in front of a nearby eatery before the murders. After an hour (when the murder took place), the car was seen parked at NGO Colony intersection, near new bus stand.
The police have concluded that the vehicle was being used by Karthik. As he was seen near the scene of crime before and after the murder and his mobile phone coordinates back this up, he was picked up for interrogation. On being brought to Tirunelveli, Commissioner of Police, Tirunelveli City, N. Bhaskaran, grilled Karthik. He parted with no information. When he was about to be let off, Mr. Bhaskaran and Mr. Periyasamy saw an injury on his hand and asked him about it. Though Karthik proferred an explanation, he cracked when cross-examined.
“Karthik, while orchestrating the crime, had suffered a knife injury. After attempting to erase evidence and fingerprints, he had come back to the car parked near NGO Colony intersection. When he put on his footwear, Karthik accidentally put his hands on the wall outside the house, apparently for support, where he left a bloodstain and fingerprints, which nailed him,” police sources said. When the investigators grilled him on Monday, Karthik continued to maintain that he had dumped the weapon in a waterbody near Palayamkottai and the valuables he had stolen from Uma Maheshwari’s house in the Tamirabharani near Manimurtheeswaram.
Police are not buying his claim to have single-handedly murdered Uma Maheshwari, her husband and maid, and suspect that he could have hired contract killers. On the motive, the police explained that he and his mother Seeniammal believed that Uma Mahashwari’s sudden rise in the DMK had put paid to Seeniammal’s political fortunes. “Uma Maheshwari’s political career brought her huge fortunes and she and her relatives became crorepatis. This could have driven Karthik to take revenge,” a police officer said.
