Three arrested for rape and murder, victim suspected to be transgender

The accused have been identified as R Karthik (25), J Vijay (20) and V Selvakumar (20) of Kilai village in Sriperumpudur taluk.

Karthik, fearing arrest, approached Kilai Village Administrative Officer C Sivakumar (32) on Tuesday who handed him over to police on Tuesday.

During investigation, Karthik told police that he along with his friends Sathya and Balu spotted Chinnaraj passing by a lake on Sunday morning and started a conversation with him. Suspecting him to be a transgender, they took him to a nearby bush and got him drunk. Then, they raped him one after another. As Chinnaraj did not cooperate, the infuriated trio slit his throat with a broken liquor bottle, killed him and fled the spot.

Around 6 pm on the same day, Karthik returned to the spot with his two other friends, Vijay and Selvakumar, and cleared the body and threw it into a burning dumpyard close-by.

Police immediately took him to the spot and retrieved the half-burnt body and sent it for post-mortem. Around 4.30 am on Wednesday, police arresed Vijay and Selvakumar when they tried to escape after noticing police at Kaatu Kootu Road junction.

While three of them have been recommended in judicial custody, police have launched a hunt for two other accused — Balu and Sathya. There is no identity proof of the deceased and the details such as his name, hometown and gender were provided by the accused. A verification process is also on to ascertain facts, added police sources.