Four years on, 5 held for murder of missing man

According to police, V Ellappan (46), an employee at the Madras Atomic Power Station in Kalpakkam, went missing in February 2013. Now they have found that he was murdered by a five-member gang for his properties and his body was buried on the Palar river bed. Police cracked the case after Ellappan’s former wife Angayakanni, who wanted to register properties of Ellappan, worth several crores, in the name of their son, found out that all of Ellappan’s properties, including his four houses in Kancheepuram, one in Vellore, a bank account to the tune of Rs 1.25 crore, had been registered in the name of woman named Thenmozhi. Angayakanni then lodge a complaint with the Kancheepuram DSP. A special police team picked up Thenmozhi (56), who has been staying as a tenant at one of Ellappan’s house for several years. 

When questioned, she confessed to the crime and said that she along with four others had beaten Ellappan to death using a spade and buried his body on the Palar river basin to take his properties. Police said Ellappan, had been staying alone with this his mother Rajalakshmi at T K Nambi Street, Kancheepuram. As Ellappan reportedly suffered from some mental illness, his wife divorced him in 2006 and was staying separately with their son. Ellappan went missing in February 2013 but his relatives did not take it seriously. However, when Ellappan did not return even after his mother’s death, his uncle lodged a man missing complaint. Thenmozhi, had hatched the plan to murder him along with Chellappan (50), Ezhumalai (55), Venkatagiri alias Gopi (40) and Sekhar (56). They beat him to death using a spade and buried his body in Palar river bed at Kuruvimalai near Kancheepuram. The gang then got his properties changed in to Thenmozhi’s name. A team of senior district police officials and Wallajahbad Tahsildar dug up the area where the gang claimed to have buried Ellappan. However, they have not recovered any remains from the site so far.