CHENNAI: A city-based criminal lawyer died under mysterious circumstances on Sunday night, with the Mahabalipuram police, as of yet, being unable to establish for certain not only the place where he had been shot but also whether the history- sheeter who surrendered to the police claiming responsibility, was the real assailant.
Kamesh succumbed to a single 9mm bullet shot below his abdomen.
Police have not, however, discounted the history sheeter’s claims although inconsistencies remain in the events that took place and all facts have yet to be ascertained.
The deceased, advocate S Kamesh (33), left his house at Vannanthirai at Besant Nagar on Sunday morning around 9 am in his car after telling his wife Deepa that he was going to Villupuram and would return the same day. Around 9 pm, he called Deepa up and told her he would reach home in another hour.
“But he did not return. Around 12.30 am, Kamesh’s friend, also an advocate, Selvam and two more persons drove to Kamesh’s house and informed Deepa and Kamesh’s mother that Kamesh was injured, unconscious and had been taken to Fortis Malar hospital in Adyar. Doctors had declared that he was brought dead,” said G S Srinivasan, father of Kamesh.
Around 3 am, police informed the family that they had arrested one Easwaran alias Esha, a history-sheeter with at least two murder cases pending against him.
Initially, based on Easwaran’s statements, Mahabalipuram police said both Easwaran and Kamesh had gone for a drinking session to Puduchery and Easwaran, during a petty argument, accidentally shot Kamesh.
“The car hit a median near Buckingham Canal bridge after which both of them quarrelled. Easwaran says he had merely pointed the pistol at Kamesh in order to threaten him and had accidentally pressed the trigger,” said a police officer, on Monday morning.
Selvam had told family members that Kamesh phoned him around 10.30 pm asking him to come and pick him up at ECR. Selvam having gone to the spot in an auto drove the injured Kamesh in his car to Fortis Malar hospital and then went and informed the Kamesh household.
However, the victim’s family rejected the version and suspected that it was planned murder.
“We suspect that Easwaran is not the real accused. He is just a person set up to close the case. We need the police to thoroughly probe and find the real killerss,” Srinivasan said.
On Monday evening, a police team took out Easwaran to Marakannam to trace the sequence of events leading to the murder.
“Easwaran is giving contradictory statements claiming he was very drunk when the incident took place,” said another officer.
There were also other apparent discrepancies . While police initially said the car hit the median when they were returning from Puducherry, the damages in the car were only on the left side. (The median will be on the right side on the road to Chennai on the ECR).
It is also unclear why Kamesh did not call the 108 ambulance service instead of calling his friend Selvam.
“We suspect that Kamesh was shot dead in Marakannam itself. There could be one or more persons who helped in the murder. Also, the motive can be relating to money transactions between Easwaran and Kamesh. Kamesh had a few times appeared for Easwaran in courts,” said a police source in Mahabalipuram police station.
Kamesh had appeared as counsel for several gangsters in the city, including the March, 2014 shooting of a DMK functionary, Mangaleri Kandhan.
