Cops pose as TV crew, nab triple murder accused
Investigators said they had arrested 42-year-old sofa-maker A Murugan, whose daughter sensationally revealed on a Tamil TV show that her father was a killer and had molested her, and charged him with the murder of three people in December 2008. Police sleuths posed as members of a crew with another TV channel to nab Murugan, who was on the run since the recording of the TV show, in which he and his wife also participated, in Chennai on May 17.
An investigating officer said teams searching for Murugan discovered that he was hiding in a friend's house in a village in Villupuram district. The police team, which also included woman officers, approached Murugan through a friend of his, promising to help him out of the fix by offering him a chance to appear on a programme to defend himself. Killer's wife, daughter too questioned. The police took Murugan to an unidentified location where they interrogated him.
Murugan's daughter Bhargavi, his wife Rajeswari, her bother A Mathiarasu and some relatives are being questioned in connection with the murder of A Sekar, his daughter Lavanya and her boyfriend Silambarasan. "We suspect that Murugan may not have acted alone. Some members of his family could have aided him in the crime," the officer said. Police sources said Murugan had confessed to the murders. Lavanya and her boyfriend Silambarasan, who worked for Murugan, reportedly eloped in 2008 and sought refuge in Murugan's house in Nallanpillai Petral village in Villupuram district.
"Murugan was a friend of Lavanya's father Sekar," the officer said. "After Lavanya gave Murugan her gold jewellery for safekeeping, he decided to kill the young couple and take the gold." Murugan plied Silambarasan with liquor till he was completely drunk, and then served the couple poisoned food. He buried the bodies in the backyard of his house. When Sekar came to his house in search of his daughter, Murugan poisoned him too.
Sekar's wife Jeeva, 35, went to the police on June 1 after she saw the show on TV in which Bhargavi revealed that her father had buried the victims near a well in the backyard of their house.