Eyes on timber mafia over couple murder

MADURAI: Police probing the cold-blooded murder of a forest department employee and his wife in Kanyakumari district have brought the timber mafia under the scanner.
Police have also started investigations about forest officials who were behind the frequent transfers of Arumugam (50), an office assistant of the state forest department posted at Aralvaimozhi."We have confirmed that the pistol used to fire at Arumugam was a forest department weapon,'' a senior police official said. Arumugam and wife Easwari were shot dead on Thursday night near Susindram when they were returning to Therur village on a motorcycle.
Police said they had started gathering information about the timber mafia operating in the region. "We are gathering details about the operations of suspected timber smugglers and their connivance with forest officials. Arumugam has been transferred at least three times between Vadaseri and Aralvaimozhi in the last two years. There must be some motive behind the frequent transfers. We are trying to find out who were the forest officials behind those transfers,'' said a police official.
The police, however, say that preliminary investigations have confirmed that the brutal murders were perpetrated by forest department staff. The police are waiting for a confirmation report about the bullets that were used by the forest department personnel. The bullets retrieved from the bodies of Arumugam and Easwari have been sent to Chennai to ascertain whether it was forest department ammunition. "Only trained personnel could use a 9 mm pistol to which the bullets belonged. Since possession of such a pistol by individuals is prohibited, only department staff could have had it. We suspect the forest department staff could have given it to the killers to murder the couple,'' police said.
The relatives of Arumugam told the police that he did not nurse any personal enmity with anyone.
South Zone IG Rajesh Das said the investigation was progressing in the right direction, but said the details of the probe could not be divulged at this moment.
"We have got concrete leads. We will soon arrest the culprits," he said.