4 arrested in Erode double murder case

TAmil Nadu law arrested a gang up of 3 burglars and a jeweller, on mon for their alleged involvement in the polish off of an elderly couple in Erode district on April 28, officers aware of the matter said, adding that the three burglars have admitted that they were also involved in the triple murder that took place in Tiruppur’s Palladam last year.Police identified the elderly couple as Ramasamy, 75, and his wife Bakkiyammal, 65, who were residing in their farmhouse in Erode.After the bodies were recovered, police launched an investigation into the murders and formed 12 special teams. Police first caught P Achiappan (48) on May 17 and he confessed to the murder and burglary, which led them to the arrest N Madeshwaran (53), and R Ramesh (52). Following investigation, the trio, who were associated with coconut trade, were arrested on Monday, police added.“The accused attacked the couple using wooden sticks on April 28, and have confessed to the crime. They stole 20 sovereigns of gold. We have seized 82 grams of gold jewellery, which they gave to an Arachalure-based jeweller, Gnanasekaran, who melted them and kept the metal with him. Gnanasekaran was also arrested, and all four were remanded in judicial custody,” West Zone IG T Senthilkumar told reporters.According to Senthilkumar, their son, Kavishankar, who lives in a different village nearly 20 km away, tried to call their parents on May 1, but the phone calls were not answered. Worried, he called his relatives residing on neighbouring farms and asked them to go and check on his parents. They found the couple dead with multiple injuries and the bodies decaying in the farmhouse, he added.Police said that the three burglars have also confessed to having murdered another three people in a different case in November 2024. An elderly couple and their son were found dead inside a farmhouse in Tiruppur’s Palladam and eight sovereigns of gold were missing. Since there was no headway in the case, it was transferred to the CB-CID in March. The accused primarily used to target older couples living alone, police added.“On November 29 last year, a local barber had gone to their farmhouse and found the bodies of Deivasigamani, 78, his wife, Alamelu, 75 and their son, Senthil Kumar. The son who lived in the nearby Coimbatore district had come to meet his parents the previous night,” Senthilkumar said.“Their involvement in other cases will be confirmed after taking them into police custody and following further investigation,” the IG said, adding that the three had previously been booked in theft cases. With inputs from PTI