Search for Chennai bizman leads Malay cops to massacre' site

CHENNAI: The search for a Chennai-based businessman Allal Kathan Muthuraja, now feared killed in Malaysia, has led the Malaysian police to a case of probable serial killings involving suspects of Indian origin.
Investigators have found several skeletons, literally, tumbling out of the cupboard of two Tamil lawyers known to the victim, Muthuraja. The 34-year-old's parents from Tenkasi have now been called to undergo a DNA test to confirm the murder.
Following a complaint this month from Muthuraja's wife S Usha Rani that her husband had gone missing since he went to Ladang Gadong near Banting on January 18, Malaysian police picked up two lawyers on September 17 and 18.Their names have been withheld. Later, six of their associates were also picked up.
According to media reports from Malaysia, the police have linked the gang also to the murder of a Malaysian businesswoman, Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya, and three others, whose bodies were found in a river in Tanjong Sepat near Banting on September 12.
S Manikavasagam, a Tamil member of parliament elected from the Kappar region, told The Times of India that the police recovered 300 bones, apparently from burnt bodies, 150 metres from a farmhouse owned by one of the accused. "The police are not saying how many would have been killed by this gang. They have asked Usha Rani to bring in Muthuraja's family members to Malaysia for a DNA test," he said.
"Usha Rani is now in Malaysia assisting the police in the investigation. Police said the accused had confessed to Muthuraja's murder. Since they could not get the body, only a DNA test could now prove whether any of the recovered bones belong to Muthuraja," Manikavasagam said, adding that the motive behind the murders, is not yet known.
Usha Rani had last week told TOI that her husband had called from his mobile phone informing her that he had met his lawyer friends and was safe.
After that there was no communication from her husband. She had told the Malaysian press that Muthuraja planned to open a restaurant in Malaysia and had gone there to hold discussions with his advocate friends, who are now in the custody of the police on charges of serial killings.
According to media reports, the lawyers and their aides had confessed to killing several people including Muthuraja and Lawiya, her driver Kamaruddin Shamsudin, her lawyer AK Abdul Karim and a bank officer, Noorhisham Mohammad, who went to meet the lawyers at their farmhouse.
While the Malaysian police is yet to officially confirm Muthuraja's death, his mother A Ramalakshmi and father E Allal Kathan, who live in Tenkasi, still believe that their son is alive.