Murder probe leads cops to gruesome killing of woman

They even went to the extent of removing the uterus of the 23-year-old to make it look like she was a transperson, sources said.

The arrested trio was identified as Xavier Arul (45) a local officer-bearer of the MNM in Sholinganallur, his son Vijay (19), and Amul Raj (32).

It was the local public who spotted the body of a man near the Sithalapakkam lakebed on Sunday. Following information, the Pallikaranai police retrieved the body and sent it for post-mortem examination. The relatives of the man, later identified as Henry, noticed that his one-sovereign chain was missing, and informed the police.

During investigation, the police browsed the CCTV footages from the area and found three men taking Henry in an auto in Pallikaranai. On Monday morning, they traced that the auto to its owner, Xavier Arul of Pallikaranai.

The officials who arrested Arul said he became friends with Henry at a bar a few months ago, and used to consume liquor together since then. On Sunday, Arul, his son Vijay and Amul Raj picked up Henry in his auto and went to Sithalapakkam lake to drink. There, they had asked Henry for his gold chain, which he refused. Not willing to take no for an answer, they drowned him in the lake and escaped with the chain.

In the course of the interrogation, Arul also confessed that they had killed a 23-year-old woman in the same spot in November. They then dumped the body in the water after tying her limbs.

According to the police, Vijay was in a relationship with the woman. When she pressed him to marry for after getting pregnant, the group decided to kill her. They asked her to come over to discuss the matter, and murdered her. After that, they removed her uterus, which made the police label the unidentified body as that of a transperson. The girl, who lost her parents during childhood itself, was staying alone in Medavakkam and worked at a textile shop.

The Pallaikaranai police arrested the three of them, and further inquiry is on.