COIMBATORE: The West Zone police have cracked down on three separate incidents of murder borne out of the illicit affair.

In Coimbatore, Sigamani (47), a native of Tiruvarur and running a travel firm in Dubai, was murdered by a gang hired by his paramour, Saratha (32), from Gandhimanagar in Coimbatore.

He was given a heavy dose of sleeping tablets mixed in liquor by Thiyagarajan (58), from Thoothukudi, and ‘Kutty Thangam’ alias Puthiyavan, who then took his body in a car and dumped it in an isolated thicket in the Karur area on April 25.

While investigations were based on a missing complaint by Sigamani’s wife Priya, the prime accused Thiyagarajan surrendered before the Peelamedu police in Coimbatore.

Police said Saratha, who was employed in a hotel in Dubai, had conceived the murder plan, following a financial dispute with the deceased.

Police said Thiyagarajan, a daily wager, was already involved in the murder of Saratha’s husband, Gunavel, in 2016, at her behest. He had executed the second murder while on bail. A search is on for the absconding accused persons.

In another incident in Krishnagiri, the police arrested Baskar (34) from Royal Garden in Hosur, who runs a gym, for murdering his wife Sasikala (33), whom he married in 2018 after being in love.

As she quarrelled with him over his illicit affair, an infuriated Baskar strangled her to death on 30 April and cooked up a drama that she had died accidentally. The Sipcot police arrested him on Friday, and further inquiries are underway.

In Tirupur, police nabbed Rajesh Kanna (30), from Vadipatti in Madurai on Friday for murdering his wife Chitra, a nurse in a private hospital, following a quarrel, suspecting her fidelity. Her body was found with a disfigured face in a thicket in Poompuhar Nagar on Thursday.