CHENNAI: Since MGR and his wife were childless, the former chief minister adopted the seven children of his wife’s brother, one of whom was Sudha, wife of murdered Vijayan.
Property disputes were a regular affair for the MGR family, but matters got out of hand when fight arose between Banu, Sudha’s sister, and her youngest brother Ramachandran alias Dilipan after he objected to her taking control of the Janaki Ramachandran Matriculation School, where she was also the Principal. Banu suspected Vijayan of helping Dilipan against her, which was when she decided to do away with Vijayan. Banu conspired with a police constable Karuna, introduced by Bhuvana, a staff at the school.
The CB-CID found out Banu was guilty after they followed her around for a few days and also checked her phone records. A huge amount of money was also transferred from her account a few days after the murder. The final nail on the coffin came when the CB-CID found that she had sold a lot of her jewellery a few days prior to the murder to fund it. After the murder, Banu and her family relocated to Bengaluru.
The case went through several hurdles. While some witnesses turned hostile, some matters in the case also went up to the Supreme Court.