TIRUVANNAMALAI: Tiruvannamalai police have arrested two youth -- including a 19-year-old from Cheyyar -- for allegedly abducting and murdering their 22-year-old friend on March 28 over previous enmity. In connection with the case, the police are on the lookout for three more youngsters, who are absconding.
The suspects have been identified as I Sunil alias Agni (19), Karthi, Arun Kumar, Bangalorean, and Dilip Kumar. According to police sources, the victim -- S Silk alias Gemini (22), a funeral van driver in Cheyyar -- had allegedly damaged a motorbike belonging to one of Agni's friends. Gemini, also, had allegedly assaulted Agni with a knife. In retaliation, Agni and his accomplices set fire to the funeral van owned by the victim, said the police.
Meanwhile, Gemini's father Saravanan had filed a complaint with the Cheyyar police, accusing the suspects of forcing his son into drug abuse. Two days after Gemini had gone missing, he filed another complaint suspecting foul play.
On Sunday (March 30), the police arrested Agni, who was in an inebriated state. During interrogation, he allegedly confessed to the police, saying he and his associates abducted Gemini on March 28 and stabbed him to death, before dumping the body in Lake Pullarambakkam.
Later on Sunday, the police recovered Gemini's decomposed body and sent it to Government Hospital in Tiruvannamalai for autopsy. On Tuesday, the police arrested Karthi and a search operation is underway to nab the absconding suspects.
A case has been registered under sections 118 (1) (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 140 (1) (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder or for ransom) of the BNS.
'Drug menace': EPS blames ruling partyCondemning the murder, Opposition leader Edappadi K Palaniswami criticised the DMK government’s alleged failure to control the drug menace in the state. However, the police said that any conclusion regarding the role of drugs in the specific crime could only be drawn after receiving the autopsy report. A probe is on.