CHENNAI: In a scene right out of a crime film, four people, including a married couple, were arrested on Thursday by Kanathur police for allegedly murdering a man to avenge sexual harassment, and disposing of his body in an abandoned well in Thalambur.
Kanathur police said the deceased man, Loganathan (42) of Kanathur, ran a karate school in the locality. He also went to houses and taught some persons personally.
“He had been training the arrested couple’s children for the past few months. During his visits, Loganathan allegedly sexually harassed the mother. After she informed her husband about this, the husband confided in two of his friends and they hatched a plan to murder the karate trainer,” police said.
On March 13, the woman phoned Loganathan and asked him to come to a nearby place. “The husband along with the two friends received Loganathan at the spot and offered him liquor. When he passed out after some time, the three men strangled him to death. They also attacked him with wooden logs. The karate trainer’s body was then thrown into an abandoned well in Thalambur,” they further said.
On the following day, Loganathan’s family lodged a man missing complaint. While combing CCTV footage, the police found that Loganathan was last seen with the arrested woman.
However, the woman’s and her husband’s mobile phones were not reachable. Subsequently, the police traced their SIM network and zeroed in on their hideout in Semmencheri on Thursday.
All four of them have been arrested and sent to judicial remand. “They have confessed to the crime. The body has been recovered from the well and sent for postmortem.