COIMBATORE: The City Police arrested a senior manager and sales manager of a private bank, apart from a businessman on murder charges on Saturday and are currently in search of four more people involved in the case.
According to the police, on December 3, residents of Eachanari found a male dead body near a Tasmac outlet in the area and informed the Podanur police. The deceased person was identified as V Shanmugam (64), a realtor from Goundampalayam.
Preliminary investigation revealed that six to seven persons might be involved in the case and three special teams were formed to nab them, said the police.
The police said, Shanmugam approached P Maheswaran (28) from Gobichettipalayam, who works at a private bank situated on Madukkarai road as the sales manager, on the pretext that he knows a few people in Kerala who are engaged in hawala money transaction.
He had allegedly assured Maheswaran, his colleage M Sathish (38) from Kurichi who is the senior manager at the bank and Madhusoothanan (45) from Vellalore, who owns an elevator manufacturing unit in the city and a friend of the bank officers, that if they hand him `5 lakh in cash, they would get `10 lakh in return, said the police.
Maheswaran had accepted the deal and had given `15 lakh to Shanmugam on November 29. However, it is said that the gang, which is supposed to double the received amount, had escaped to Kerala after they got the money.
"Having failed to trace the gang on the run, the trio, on December 1, picked up Shanmugam and took him to an industry at Eachanari and demanded that their money be returned. As he said that the gang was not familiar to him, the three and four other persons attacked the sexagenarian. Shanmugam died on the same day as he sustained severe injuries. The gang had then dumped the body near Eachanari on December 2," said police sources.
Three special teams were formed to nab the criminals and the teams managed to arrest M Sathish, P Maheswaran and Madhusoothanan. The remaining four are absconding.
The trio was booked under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence or giving false information to screen offender), 302 (murder) and 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code.