VIRUDHUNAGAR: Two sons-in-law of the owner of a farmland in Veppilaipatti near Sattur were arrested on Thursday for allegedly dumping into a well the bodies of two men, who were electrocuted to death by an illegal fence installed on the land parcel last week.
According to the Appayanaickenpatti police, around 6 am on October 31, the suspects, S Manikandan (42) and S Sudhakar (40) — sons-in-law of the landowner, Dheivanai — found that the two victims had been electrocuted to death after coming into contact with the fence, which was installed by Manikandan to prevent wild boar intrusion. Investigation revealed that the suspects, in order to evade police action, allegedly dismantled the fence and dumped the bodies of the victims — A Sureshkumar (45) of Vembakottai and V Ravikumar (47) of Thombakula — into a nearby well.
According to police sources, the victims were on their way to attend the wedding of their relative at the Gengamman temple on October 31. The two stepped into Dheivanai’s maize field around 4 am. As they did not return and the subsequent search by their family turned futile, Ravikumar’s wife, Nirmala (40), lodged a missing persons complaint with the Appayanaickanpatti police station on the same day.
Despite extensive searches, the police were unable to trace the victims. Five days later, a shepherd alerted the authorities to foul odour emanating from the well, located 500 metres from the maize field. The decomposed bodies were later recovered from the 20-foot-deep well.
The police altered the case to include sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the BNS, 2023, and Section 135 (theft of electricity).