Investigations have confirmed the involvement of Erode Surampatti Municipal former chairman and a DMK functionary Kattu Subbu in the murder of Vanniyar sangam activist and a history-sheeter Steel Ravi.
Police told Express, Ravi was murdered by a three-member gang on February 14 during the auctioning of shops for a temple festival was under way at a marriage hall.
The next day Mohanraj, Dravidaselvan and Manikandan, all from Erode surrendered in a Coimbatore court.
The trio, who were taken into custody by police, during interrogation said that Arun and his friend Kattu Subbu assisted them in escaping from the murder spot.
But, the probe confirmed that the trio were not real murderers and they were waiting at the spot only to kill Ravi in case, if the real assailants, Sundar, Rajkumar and Mani of Nellai, bump off the target.
But, the Erode trio did not know the Nellai based criminals, who committed the murder, have also been engaged for the same job.
Hence, they did not drop their names when they were interrogated by the police.
After this, the police launched a hunt for Arun and Kattu Subbu, who surrendered one after the other in different courts.
As Arun himself listed the names of the real murderers and admitted that he had only instigated the murder after Ravi threatened and demanded money from him, police launched a search for the Nellai trio, who also surrendered one after the other in the case.
Amidst these developments, the police have planned to include an Erode-based lawyer in the murder case.
The move is being contemplated by the cops as the probe revealed that the lawyer gave asylum to the criminals.
Hence the police have planned to include him in the case on the ground of ‘helping’ the criminals.
As per law, a lawyer should help an accused to get bail and in arguing his case only and not helping an accused to go into hiding.
On the basis of witnesses, we can prove his offence in the court of law and thus ensure due punishment for him also, police said.