PC kin murder: Accused in judicial custody

Tirupur: A judicial magistrate court on Thursday remanded all the four arrested in connection with the murder of a close relative of former union minister P Chidambaram in judicial custody for 15 days. They were later lodged at the Coimbatore Central Prison.

The four have confessed to police that their plan was to kidnap and extort Rs 50 lakh from C Sivamurthy, 47, of Karumarampalayam. Sivamurthy is the son-in-law of the younger sister of Chidambaram’s wife Nalini. However, their plans went awry and murdered him when he sensed something wrong and attempted to escape while travelling in a car.

Sivamurthy, police said, was engaged in both knitwear real estate business. He had gone missing on Monday.

During the investigation, it was revealed that Sivamurthy’s friend K Vimal, 35, and three others had murdered him near Karamadai here and dumped the body in Kelavarapalli reservoir at Hosur in Krishnagiri district.

Police subsequently arrested Vimal, Manikandan alias Manibharathi, 22, and Gauthaman, 22, from Ambur in Vellore district and recovered Sivamurthy’s luxury car. The fourth accused, Murthy, 37, was caught in Tirupur.

Vimal, the mastermind behind the kidnap, had planned to extort Rs 50 lakh after taking Sivamurthy to Kotagiri of Nilgiris district. But they strangulated him to death when he raised an alarm and attempted to escape, police said.


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