Cóimbatore/ Krishnagiri/ Vellore: In a shocking development, C. Shivamurthy, a 47-year-old Tirupur-based knitwear exporter and a distant kin of senior Congress leader and former finance minister, P. Chidambaram, who went missing from his home couple of days back, was found to be abducted and killed by a three-member gang, police said on Wednesday.
Three persons — Gouthaman, Vimal and Manibharati — were arrested by the police near Ambur in Vellore district late on Tuesday night in connection with the alleged abduction and murder, after their movement in a luxury car, which happens to be owned by the abducted victim, was traced at Vengilli near Ambur on the Chennai-Bangalore NH, thanks to the GPS device fitted in the car.
Police said in Coimbatore on Wednesday that Shivamurthy’s family had given a ‘missing person complaint’ on June 25, in Tirupur after he did not return home from office. The three persons arrested Tuesday night reportedly confessed to having abducted Shivamurthy from Tirupur, took him to Mettupalayam near Coimbatore and killed him. Later, they had confessed to have dumped the body in a lake near Hosur.
Fire and Rescue Services personnel fished out Shivamurthy’s body on Wednesday in a joint search operation with the help of Hosur police for over three hours, from the Kelavarapalli dam near Hosur, sources said. Based on the accused persons’ confession another person, Murthy, from Karamadai near Coimbatore, was arrested this morning.
Shivamurthy is the son-in-law of Mr Chidambaram’s sister-in-law Padmini, police said, adding further investigations are on to find out the motive for the gruesome crime. All the accused have been handed over to the Tirupur police.
