CHENNAI: Mystery shrouds the fate of four of a six-member gang that murdered a woman in 1995 after it recently emerged that two of them and the man who outed them had been bumped off over 17 years ago.
The police now suspect that the four too could have been bumped off in revenge, since they went missing ever since they got bail in the murder case. Their finger of suspicion is on Anbil Gnanadurai, whose wife Jhansi Rani was murdered by the gang, and his friend Ramachandran, since the police recently stumbled on the fact that the duo had killed two of the hit squad and the informer in 1996 and 1998.
The triple murder got unravelled after Ramachandran’s recent fake kidnap claim fell flat during police interrogation.“Separate teams have been sent to look for the remaining four accused. They have not surfaced after they were released on bail in Jhansi Rani murder case and are not living in the addresses they provided in jail records,” said an official privy to the probe.
In 1995, Gnanadurai found his wife Jhansi Rani murdered at his house and at least 60 sovereigns of gold jewellery and `1 lakh cash stolen from the safe.
Six persons were arrested in the murder case - Lakshmanan, Murugan, Raju, Arumugam, Muthu and Mariappan. Of them, Gnanadurai and Ramachandran confessed they had killed Mariappan in 1996, and Muthu and Murugan (not the hit squad member) in 1998.
The Murugan they murdered was another history-sheeter who gave Gnanadurai and Ramachandran the lowdown on the plot and revealed it was commissioned by Gnanadurai’s younger brother Paul Anbazhagan. Gnanadurai then killed his sibling and made it appear as if it was an accident, the police said.
But then, informer Murugan became greedy as he tried to extort money from Gnanadurai and Ramachandran, threatening to expose them for murdering Mariappan and Muthu, so he was eliminated.
Gnanadurai, who owns a piece of land in Singaperumalkoil near Chengelpet, disposed of all three bodies by burning them there, the police said.
Meanwhile, the relationship between the buddies got strained after Gnanadurai married Pushparani, on the insistence of Ramachandran. Later, Ramachandran incurred losses in business and decided to extort money from Gnanadurai by faking his (Ramachandran’s) kidnap and demanding money from Gnanadurai as ransom. Ramachandran’s son Prakash reported the kidnap call to the police, who laid a trap and caught Ramachandran, which was when the skeletons started tumbling out of the closet.
