Four arrested in murder of elderly couple in Erode

CHENNAI: The police have arrested four persons in connection with the shocking murder of an elderly couple in Erode.

The police special teams arrested P Achiappan (48), N Madeshwaran (52) and R Ramesh (54), all hailing from Arachalur. During the inquiry, they confessed to having murdered Ramasamy (72) and his wife (63), who resided alone at a farmhouse in Sivagiri, and stole 10.75 sovereigns of gold jewels.

Following the murder, 12 special teams comprising DSPs and Inspectors were formed to scrutinise CCTV footage, track ex-convicts, and conduct an inquiry before tracking down the culprits. Police recovered the jewels, cell phone, three two-wheelers, gloves, and weapons from them.

“The trio also confessed to having murdered Deivasigamani (78), his wife Alamathal (74) and their son Senthil Kumar (44) at their farmhouse on November 28 last year in Tirupur. They then stole 5.5 sovereigns of gold jewellery and a cell phone," said T Senthil Kumar, IG, West Zone.

The Palladam triple murder case is investigated by the CB-CID police. Besides the trio, the police also arrested Gnanasekaran (36), a jeweller, who melted the stolen ornaments and helped in the offence.

The police said the three accused had posed as coconut traders and coconut pluckers while visiting the farm houses, looking for potential targets. "The trio was jailed for nine months in 2015 for involvement in break-ins. Thereafter, they managed to evade police action in the last ten years," police said.

In the Sivagiri double murder, the police got a breakthrough by tracking a two-wheeler, caught on a CCTV camera at the place of occurrence. As police suspect them to be involved in several other offences, the trio is likely to be taken into custody for further investigations.

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