CHENNAI: A case of suspected snake bite has turned into a murder following an investigation into the death of 56-year-old EP Ganesan at Pothaturpettai village in Tiruvallur district on October 22.
The police have arrested two sons of the deceased and four others for deliberately releasing an ‘Indian krait’ to bite the man in order to claim insurance amount, the police said.
According to police, the deceased, Ganesan, was a lab assistant at a government girls’ higher secondary school in Podaturpet. On October 22, he was found dead at his house after what appeared to be a snake bite. Based on a complaint from his son Mohanraj (26), the police initially registered a case of accidental death.
The case took a turn after an insurance company flagged irregularities in the claims submitted by the family and raised concerns over the conduct of the deceased’s sons, the police said.
Subsequent investigation revealed the family had availed multiple loans and took high-value insurance policies amounting to Rs 3 crore, which police sources said were disproportionate to their known sources of income. Investigators found Mohanraj and his brother Hariharan (27), employed at a private firm, allegedly conspired to murder their father to claim the insurance proceeds.
The police said the brothers roped in the help of Balaji (28), Prashanth (35), Dinakaran (43) and Naveenkumar (27), all from Manavur village near Tiruttani, to stage the crime as an accident. An earlier attempt using a cobra about a week prior had failed, they said. On the day of the incident, another snake was brought to the house and made to bite Ganesan on the neck in the early hours. The snake was later killed inside the house, and there was a delay in shifting the victim to hospital, the police said.
Analysis of call records and financial transactions, including suspicious transfers, helped establish the conspiracy. All six suspects have been arrested, and further investigation is under way.