DINDIGUL: The death of two persons in Pallapatti near Ammayanayakkanur after consuming liquor
has turned out to be a murder as the liquor they had consumed was laced with cyanide, investigations reveal.
Six persons including a Tasmac supervisor were arrested in this connection on Thursday. Those arrested have been identified as Rajalingam, Tamilvanan, Krishnamurthy, another man also named Krishnamurthy, Senthil and Balu, who supplied the cyanide.
Murugan (40) of Koundanpatti and Sairam alias Samayan (55) of Saralpuram died after consuming liquor handed over to them by one Jayachandran of Pallapatti on Wednesday. One Thangapandy, who consumed the same liquor, is undergoing treatment at Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai.
Sources said that for years, Jayachandran, the bootlegger, who sold the bottles of liquor to the three used to share the profit he earned with one Rajalingam, supervisor of a Tasmac outlet in the locality. But the relationship between Jayachandran and Rajalingam got strained when the bootlegger started buying bottles
of liquor from another Tasmac outlet.
A furious Rajalingam joined hands with one Tamilvanan of Pallapatti, who already nurtured animosity with Jayachandran over running an outlet selling chicken. They engaged one Krishnamurthy of Koundanpatti to procure five bottles of liquor from Jayachandran. Tamilvanan after taking the bottles from Krishnamurthy, handed them over to his relativem whose name is also Krishnamurthy of Pallapatti.
It was Krishnamurthy of Pallapatti, who added small quantity of cyanide in the liquor bottles. These bottles were later handed over to Rajalingam. Rajalingam entrusted one Senthil to procure another five bottles of liquor from Jayachandran in the pretext of exchanging it with another brand of liquor. After
taking the bottles, he gave cyanide-laced liquor bottles to the salesman of the Tasmac outlet Selvam. Later, Jayachandran took these bottles from Selvam.
A murder case was registered against Rajalingam, Tamilvanan, both the persons named Krishnamurthy, Senthil and Balu.