CHENNAI: Two and half months after being reported missing, police found that the 19-year-old college student from neighbouring Tiruvallur district was murdered by his friends including a minor and his body was dumped in a canal near the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border.

The victim, D Dinesh (19) of Uthukottai was a first-year student at Government Arts College, Vyasarpadi. His family filed a police complaint after he failed to return home after going to college on August 20. A special team which probed the missing complaint questioned his friends and found that they gave evasive replies.

After interrogating them, police found that three of his friends, Karthik (24) Naga (22) and a 17-year-old got together with another person and hacked Dinesh to death. The trio was arrested on Thursday.