With the Tirunelveli city police yet to make a breakthrough in the investigation into the murders of former Mayor Uma Maheshwari, her husband, and their housemaid, the case is likely to be handed over to the Crime Branch – Criminal Investigation Department if the ongoing probe fails to yield results in the next couple of days.
The Inspector of Police, CB-CID, Piraichandran, and his colleagues on Friday visited the house at Rose Nagar near the Government College of Engineering, where Uma Maheshwari, her husband Murugasankaran and housemaid Mariammal were found dead on Tuesday.
Though the CB-CID team said they inspected the crime scene only out of ‘professional interest’ as it would be of great help to them in cracking similar cases being investigated by them, it is expected that the government might hand over the case to the CB-CID.
Though three special teams were formed to determine the motive behind the triple murder and identify the assailants, they have been unable to make significant progress so far.
After grilling over 100 people, including the relatives of the slain former mayor and her husband, in a bid to get vital clues that could lead the police to the culprits, the investigators are yet to make much headway.
When one of the special teams was dispatched to Madurai to inquire with a woman DMK functionary from Tirunelveli, even as she was recuperating after medical treatment, the team could not extract any useful information from the woman, who has termed the inquiry an attempt to spoil the DMK’s image.
‘Not murder for gain’
The investigators, who are now almost convinced that it was not a case of ‘murder for gain’, have started grilling the relatives of the deceased again, in a bid to get much-needed clues.
“Murugasankaran had earned multiple enmities through property disputes and financial transactions. Since the assailants had spent over 30 minutes in the house, it cannot be a case of ‘murder for gain’ as burglars will always be in a hurry to flee with the booty after committing the crime,” an investigating official said.
The multiple stab injuries on the bodies of Uma Maheshwari and Murugasankaran suggest that the murderers had tortured the couple before killing them in a bid to get the information or money or other valuables they may have been looking for.
“It is clear that the killers had spent more than 30 minutes, which means this incident has a deeper motive, which remains elusive,” said a police officer privy to the ongoing investigation.
