CHENNAI: Three murders, and a kidnap attempt at gun-point were what the Ayanavaram police stumbled upon when they started to probe a botched bid to abduct an elderly woman in the locality.
It all started when cab driver Rajesh Kannan held a ‘gun’ and tried to kidnap Padmini from her relative’s house in Ayanavaram in April 2019 in public view. Hearing her screams, locals rounded up the kidnappers, who included Padmini’s daughter-in-law Menaka.
When police started the probe, they stumbled upon three murders. First, Rajesh Kannan convinced Senthilkumar, who was the elder son of Padmini and Moongilan, to murder his own brother Rajkumar in 2017. After Senthilkumar was arrested and sent to jail, Rajesh Kannan developed friendship with Senthilkumar’s wife Menaka. In July 2018, when Senthilkumar came out of jail on bail, he was murdered at Gingee near Villupuram and buried there.
In July 2018, Moongilan himself was murdered at his house in Manimangalam near Padappai. It was after the third murder in the family that Padmini panicked and took refuge at a relative’s house in Ayanavaram. Her kidnap attempt landed both Menaka and Rajesh Kannan, along with his associates, in a soup, as the Ayanavaram police got an indication of the fate of Senthilkumar from Rajesh Kannan.
However, the exhumation of Senthilkumar’s body from a field in Gingee a couple of days ago happened after the victim’s mother filed a habeas corpus petition in Madras high court to trace her ‘missing’ son.
Probe further revealed that Menaka’s father Arun had helped Rajesh Kannan to murder his own son-in-law Senthilkumar in February 2018.
When Rajesh Kannan and his friend Fakruddin were arrested for the murder of Moongilan, they told police that Moongilan had collected money from Rajesh Kannan promising job for the latter’s wife. When Rajesh Kannan demanded refund of money or a job, Moongilan allegedly threatened him with dire consequences. It was over this dispute that he murdered Moongilan, police said.
As of now four people -- driver Rajesh Kannan, victim Senthilkumar’s father-in-law T Arun, 66, autorickshaw driver N Harikrishnan, 42, and their friend S Kasinathan of Gingee – have been arrested. Senthilkumar’s wife Menaka, who is also in police radar, is absconding. A police team led by the assistant superintendent of police Karthikeyan is searching for Menaka, said an officer, adding that they were yet to include Menaka’s name in the first information report
Police said investigation officers are making efforts to take Rajesh Kannan and Arun in police custody. “We need to plug some loopholes in the case, and weave an airtight case against the suspects,” said the officer, adding that if Menaka’s role in the three murders is confirmed, police will arrest her too.
A Selvaraj, who has been working as a crime reporter in Tamil Nad...
Read MoreA Selvaraj, who has been working as a crime reporter in Tamil Nadu since 1994, has several sensational scoops to his credit. In 1998, he exposed a cheating racket led by Divya Mathaji and her followers in Tiruchi. He broke several stories which caught nation’s attention, including the suicide of 2G scam accused Sadiq Batcha.
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