CUDDALORE:
Six people, including a woman, are in the police dragnet in an aborted child kidnapping case at Panruti. During investigation, it has come to light that four of them may also be involved in a murder case that occurred prior to the kidnap attempt and about which there are few clues.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Superintendent of Police P.Pakalavan said that it was initially reported that when S.Nivetha (five) went to the house of neighbour S.Kannan at Muthiah Nagar in Panruti on June 25 to watch television four persons barged into the house, beat up Kannan and his wife Malathi, and, kidnapped the girl in an Indica car with a Puducherry registration number.
The girl's father Srinivasan had left for Dubai just 10 days ago, and her mother Tamilselvi reported the matter to the police. When the police began investigatin, fearing arrest the culprits abandoned the girl near the Panaiyapuram road junction in Villupuram district, without causing any harm to her, and sped away. The police who were on their trail traced the girl within a couple of hours and restored her to the parent. The SP further said that the probe had revealed that the car originally registered in the name of a Puducherry resident had changed hands twice and the present owner was Alagu alias Palaniraja, but the documents were yet to be transferred to the current owner.
On the confession of Palaniraja, it came to light that his uncle Kannan was the brain behind the kidnap, being executed with a motive of demanding ransom from her father employed in Dubai, and in this conspiracy Malathi too had a role.
The other four involved in the incident are:
Kannan's brother-in-law Raja, the latter's accomplices Prabhu and Mani and Palaniraja.
All the six were arrested at various places simultaneously today at Panruti, Rettanai and Mangalore in Thittakudi block. Their arrests also helped in cracking the “mysterious death” of R.Adhimurthy of Kondareddipalyam in Panruti where he was found dead with bleeding injuries, with his two-wheeler lying by his side on May 30. Two of the accused – Raja and Prabhu – admitted that on the inducement of Kannan and Malathi they knifed Adhimurthy to death even while he was driving the two-wheeler.
The victim accelerated the vehicle to escape from further assault but he succumbed to injuries at a spot about two kilometers from the place of incident. Kannan had a motive to finish off Adhimurthy because the latter had betrayed him when he swindled money from the vegetable shop where they worked together. The SP also noted that the antecedents of these culprits were also being looked into. Mr. Pakalavan felicitated the special police team that acted swiftly under the supervision of Additional Deputy Superintendent of Police Ramakrishnan; it consisted of DSP Mani, Inspectors Ramadas and Vijakumar and Sub-Inspector Anandababu.
