TIRUPUR: A 54-year-old Tirupur man left his house on February 20 last year. The next day his body was found hanging from a tree inside a well. A police team's investigation bore no fruit. However, a year later, five members of the team are staring at departmental action for carrying out a 'shoddy investigation', and a small-time film producer and his friend were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly killing the man.
According to police, the deceased is Marimuthu, a resident of Mangalam. He was one of the aides of S Gopalakrishnan, a businessman-cum-film producer in the town.
Marimuthu was helping the businessman, who is into quarries and real estate, for more than 15 years. However, Gopalakrishnan had a suspicion that Marimuthu was sharing confidential information to his business rivals. Police said the duo used to have frequent arguments over this.
Marimuthu, police said, was also opposed to the businessman's entry into the film industry. On the day of the alleged murder (February 20, 2019), Marimuthu met Gopalakrishnan and his friend Kumar (40) to share a drink. During the session, Marimuthu taunted Gopalakrishnan for producing a 2018-film 'Saranaalayam', which failed miserably. A verbal spat broke out between the two sides, and in a fit of rage Kumar used iron pipes to assault Marimuthu, who died on the spot. The duo took the body in a car and threw it into a well in Josiyarkadu village, police said.
On information, a police team from Mangalam station sent the body for autopsy. A case of suspicious death was registered, however, the team allegedly failed to take the probe seriously. The victim's body was buried by friends and relatives, who suspected it to be a murder. Despite, several attempts and requests, sources said the police took no action in the case.
Marimuthu's friends recently submitted a petition to the Chief Minister's Special Cell. As a result, the complaint was forwarded to Tirupur Superintendent of Police, who ordered a reinvestigation on August 8, 2020, by a team headed by DSP R Dhanarasu.
During the preliminary inquiry, the official sources said, glaring errors were found in the FIR, postmortem report, and other documents.
The investigation led the police to Gopalakrishnan and Kumar, who are presently lodged in Tirupur District Jail.
Departmental action would be initiated against five police personnel of Mangalam police station for carrying out 'shoddy investigation' and allegedly accepting bribes.