Murthy’s body was fished out from a farm well in Vellimedupettai, Puliyannoor, Villupuram taluk, Dindivanam district on Friday after the locals alerted the police.
Interestingly, the car used in the crime was parked on Chennai-Villupuram highway, around 20 km from where the body was found. The car was used by the gang to transport the body, weapons, cash and mobile phones.
The Tamil Nadu police had got suspicious after they observed blood stains on the rear side of the Bangalore-registered car and alerted the Bangalore police.
The Cubbon Park police identified the men allegedly behind the kidnapping and murder as Vijay Kumar alias Yesupadam (46), Harish alias Satyavelu (18), Rajesh alias Pandiyan (18), Shiva Kumar alias Deena Murthy (21) and Arun alias Anand (15).
Krishna Murthy, an engineer attached to BESCOM’s Indirangar sub-division, Vigilance department, had invested a huge sum of money in Vijay Kumar’s garment factory.
Victim’s weakness
He had also given him loan to the tune of several lakhs. In turn, the accused had reportedly taken advantage of Murthy’s weakness for women, the city police confirmed.
According to the police, Vijay Kumar is married to BBMP Sudham Nagar corporator Avvai’s sister while Shiva Kumar is the corporator’s car driver. The other two are employed at his garment factory which is situated in the building adjoining the corporator’s house. About 60 women and 20 men are employed at the factory.
Four years ago, Murthy was introduced to Vijay through Srinivas, a junior engineer in BBMP. Later, varied interests brought the two closer and eventually, Murthy started lending money to Vijay.
The cops feel the two might have fallen apart after Murthy started pestering Vijay to return the money. A few weeks ago, Vijay had allegedly hired men to eliminate Murthy and had invited him to Double road but Murthy was lucky as he took a friend along.
But on Tuesday evening, as per instructions Murthy came to M G Road and was driven straight to Vijay’s factory. It was here that Murthy was attacked by iron rods, cricket bat and sluggers. After the beating, the gang reportedly strangulated Murthy.
Earlier, Vijay called up Kumuda, Murthy’s wife and fabricated a story that her husband was trapped by the Lokayukta and that she should arrange Rs 11 lakh to rescue him. To make the story believable, the gang made Murthy speak on the same line.
As per the gang’s directions, Kumuda arranged Rs 3 lakh cash and also drove their car to the designated spot –– Town Hall parking lot –– and kept the cash bag under the driver’s seat. Within minutes, a youth approached Murthy’s family and handed over a cover which contained Murthy’s photo along with a girl and few visiting cards. The youth took the car and when they did’nt hear from him for long, they decided to lodge a a formal kidnap complaint.