3 arrested for murdering Lankan refugee

MADURAI: Three people, including a Sri Lankan refugee, were arrested by the Kanyakumari district police in connection with the murder of another refugee and for destroying his body by burning it in a crematorium on Wednesday night. The fully burnt body of Rasee, 34, was found in the crematorium shed at Kariyamanickapuram village close to the Madurai - Kanyakumari national highway on Tuesday morning.
While the police were clueless about the identity of the victim as the body was fully burnt, they got a tip from a person in the refugee camp at Samugarangapuram near Valliyoor in Tirunelveli district that a fellow inmate by name Rasee, who had a studio at Valliyoor, had been missing from Wednesday. He also said the man was last seen leaving the place with a studio assistant named Kaydheeswaran, 25.
Inquiries revealed that Kaydheeswaran was a resident of the refugee camp at Perumalpuram in Kanyakumari district. Kottar police, who were still trying to identify the victim, picked up Kaydheeswaran for questioning on Thursday night. During the process, he admitted to murdering Rasee with the help of his accomplices Palani alias Kannan, 25, of Suchindram and Faizal, 26, of Paramarthilingapuram. The police said that Kaydheeswaran wanted to get rid of Rasee as the latter was in love with his elder sister. Rasee was learnt to have been married and divorced. He owned a photography studio at Valliyoor in Tirunelveli district and Kaydheeswaran was a light boy there. Rasee took a liking for Kaydheeswaran’s 26-year-old sister but the mutual love affair was not liked by the girl’s family. However, the duo was not ready to give up.
On Wednesday, Kaydheeswaran and the two others invited Rasee for a drink and picked him up in a car. They consumed alcohol in the vehicle during which time an argument broke out between Kaydheeswaran and Rasee over the love affair. The argument turned into a scuffle and the accused broke a liquor bottle and stabbed Rasee on his neck and back.
Confirming that he was dead, they took the body to the crematorium at Kariyamanickapuram, doused it with petrol they retrieved from the car, burnt the body and fled. The police booked the trio under sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code.