Three held for killing elderly couple from village near Kancheepuram

Their bodies were found on the banks of the Salai Kailasapuram irrigation tank near Arakkonam on May 23

The police arrested three persons for the murder of a couple from a village near Kancheepuram on Friday.

The police said the victims M. Manickam, 52, and his wife M. Rani, 47, were residents of Arasanthangal village near Kancheepuram and weavers by trade. They were found dead on the banks of the Salai Kailasapuram irrigation tank near Arakkonam on May 23. The bodies were sent to the government hospital for a post-mortem and a case was filed.

“Five special teams were formed to investigate the case. We tracked the caller list of the mobile phone used by Manickam and narrowed down the list of suspects,” said Z. Annie Vijaya, Director General of Police (DIG), Vellore range.

At a press meet on Friday, Ms. Vijaya said M. Sasikala, the victims’ daughter, had been living with them for the last six months after a disagreement with her husband K. Sairam, a resident of Tiruttani. As their daughter refused to live with her husband, frequent quarrels between the two families became common.

The police said Sairam’s younger brother J. Dharani, 25, one of the accused, decided to kill the elderly couple as his family believed that they were the reason his brother and sister-in-law were estranged. As a result, Dharani hired K. Sunil Kumar, 32, and K. Chandran, 45, both residents of Tiruttani, to kill Manickam and Rani.

They lured the couple to Sholinghur by lying that a private financier was lending money at low interest rates. The couple went with them on May 22 and were murdered. Their bodies were dumped near the lake in Arakkonam.