Fingerprints confirm it is Don Sridhar

“To re-confirm his identity, we are waiting for the DNA test results,” a police officer said. 

It may be noted that there was no way to confirm Sridhar’s identity immediately after his death as the mafioso did not possess valid documents when he committed suicide in the Cambodian capital city Phnom Penh on October 4. He is believed to have travelled from Dubai to south east Asia using a fake Sri Lankan passport. No post-mortem was conducted in Cambodia. 

According to reports, Sridhar had consumed poison. It is not sure if it was cyanide or mercury. “After he complained of uneasiness, he was taken to a local clinic by two servants. He died at the hospital and the doctor gave a death certificate saying Sridhar died of cardiac arrest. The police there had said there was no need for an autopsy as he already had a death certificate,” Purushothaman, a lawyer of the family, told DT Next. 

After his body was brought to Chennai, Kancheepuram police had decided to conduct an autopsy, take his fingerprints, besides doing a DNA test to establish his identity. “We had his fingerprints from records of his earlier cases. It tallied with the prints taken from the body,” an officer said.  

Sridhar, who was facing 43 cases, including murders, escaped to Dubai in 2013 and had been heading a land mafia for the last few years. In 2016, the police and Enforcement Directorate attached as many as 129 properties worth over Rs 160 crore after a court declared him as a proclaimed offender. 

In January this year he left Dubai using a fake Sri Lankan passport and was living in South East Asia before he reportedly committed suicide.