CHENNAI: A 42-year-old man who was missing from Thursday night was found dead in his car at Annai Sathya Nagar near Selaiyur on Friday morning. On Friday afternoon, two men including his driver, surrendered before the Saidapet court for murdering the man. Police said, Palaniswami, a resident of Arul Murugan Nagar at Keezhkattalai near Madipakkam, owned a construction company.
“On Thursday evening he went to visit the Jai Shakti spiritual centre at Kaspapuram, which is run by Ranjith Kumar. Since he did not return until Friday morning with his phone switched off, his wife lodged a complaint with Madipakkam police,” said a police officer. At around 11 am, the residents of Annai Sathya Nagar found a car and informed the police. Palaniswami was found dead and police suspect he was choked.
Marimuthu and Somasundaram surrendered before the Saidapet court. Marimuthu was Palaniswami’s driver. A probe revealed that Palaniswami and Ranjith used to travel to many places for Poojas. A year ago, Marimuthu started working as Palaniswami’s driver on Ranjith’s recommendation. Ranjith had borrowed `5 lakh from Palaniswami. However, he did not return the money and on Thursday evening Palaniswami had told his wife that he was going to collect the money. Marimuthu and his friend Somasundaram confessed that they had murdered Palaniswami because he threatened to murder Ranjith.