Erode double murder committed on April 28; couple beaten to death

Erode: The Sivagiri police on Monday arrested one more person in connection with the double murder at the farmhouse in Megarian Thottam area. With this, the number of arrested people in the case has gone up to four.

Ramasamy and Bakkiyammal, an elderly couple living alone at the farmhouse, were found murdered on May 2 by their neighbours. It was later found out that the couple were killed for gold ornaments weighing 10 sovereigns.

The arrested people told police that the couple were murdered on April 28. "Only three of the four arrested - Achiyappan, Matheswaran and Ramesh, all residents of Arachalur - are involved in the murder. They killed the couple by smashing their heads with wooden handles of spades and took away the gold ornaments. They melted the stolen gold ornaments with the help of Gnanasekaran, 40, a pawn shop owner from Chennimalai area, who was arrested today (Monday). We have recovered 10 grams of gold, Ramasamy's cell phone, three motorcycles, two wooden handles and gloves used for the murder," said T Senthil Kumar, inspector general (IG), Coimbatore West Zone.

He said the trio had also confessed to the triple murder at a farmhouse at Palladam in Tirupur district and stealing gold ornaments weighing 5.5 sovereigns and a mobile phone from the crime scene in November last year. An elderly couple and their son were murdered in the incident.

After the double murder in Erode, 12 special teams comprising deputy inspector general of police V Sasi Mohan and district superintendent of police A Sujatha were formed to nab the murderers on the IG's orders.

"We collected footage recorded on CCTV cameras in and around the crime scene on April 28, 29 and 30, and scrutinized the same. Similarly, we collected and examined other evidence, including footprints at the farmhouse. Postmortem report suggested that the couple were murdered on April 28. Based on this, we took the probe forward," the officer said.

He said Achiyappan, Matheswaran and Ramesh were seen travelling on a two-wheeler in the area in a suspicious manner in a CCTV footage. "Our investigation revealed that they were arrested in a burglary case in 2015. We nabbed the trio on Sunday, and they confessed to the crime. The footprints at the crime scene have matched with that of the arrested trio."