DINDIGUL: The Kodaikanal police on Wednesday night arrested two men on charges of murdering a 58-year-old man, chopping up his body and burning it in a campfire near a guest house. Police on Thursday said they are looking for two other men in connection with the crime.
The suspects were identified as Manikandan (28) and his accomplice, Santhosh (20). They are accused of beating S Sivarajan of Naidupuram in Kodaikanal to death. Sivarajan is survived by his wife and son. Police are searching for Arun (24) and Joseph (26) in connection with the murder.
Incidentally, police said Santhosh had been arrested for attacking a female doctor near the Sivaganga Medical College Hospital on March 25. Sivarajan, a financier and guest house owner, was missing from March 21. The next day, his relative lodged a complaint with the Kodaikanal police.
That day, locals found burnt parts of a body on the premises of his guest house at Perumparai. Police quizzed the workers at the guest house. Later, they received intimation from a deaddiction centre in Madurai that a patient named Manikandan had revealed his involvement in a murder in Kodaikanal. Manikandan was taken into custody. Police said Manikandan told them that he and his friends met Sivarajan at the deaddiction centre.
Sivarajan befriended Manikandan and others and offered the group a job. The group went to work at his guest house for a few days but got into a salary dispute with Sivarajan. On March 21, they allegedly beat Sivarajan to death. Panicking, they tried to dispose of his remains by cutting his body into pieces and burning them, police said.