2 yrs on, wife, 4 others held for murdering man near Madurai

Five persons, including the wife of the deceased, who were accused of murdering Ilayaraja, were arrested and produced before the Virudhunagar Magistrate court on Saturday.

Ilayaraja, a construction worker of Chathiram Puliyankulam village near Kariapatti, went missing in May 2016. Based on a complaint by his wife Muthulakshmi (32), a ‘man missing’ case was filed, and a search was under way.

As there was no breakthrough, Virudhunagar SP M Rajarajan formed a special team to crack the case.

A week ago, S Manikandan (32) of Kariapatti, who was held along with his accomplice in a chain-snatching incident, was quizzed by the police. After they grew suspicious, both the accused were interrogated.

During the course of inquiry, the accomplice revealed that he carried a bag of bones and dumped it somewhere in Madurai.

After tracing the call records on Manikandan’s phone, it was found that he had made late night calls to Muthulakshmi. Further investigation revealed that Manikandan had allegedly murdered Ilayaraja after hitting him with an iron rod on May 26, 2016, at Kambali village, when the latter was returning home after work. His body was buried in a remote area in the village. When Ilayaraja was working in Saudi Arabia, Manikandan, his neighbour, allegedly had an illicit relationship with Muthulakshmi.

After the relationship came to light, Ilayaraja was said to have reprimanded Muthulakshmi. Infuriated over this, she hatched a plan with Manikandan to kill Ilayaraja.

Aruppukkottai DSP G Venkatesan said 10 days before Deepavali this year, the killers exhumed the body, took away bones and disposed it off at Vaigai river, after they became aware that the police dragnet was closing in on them.