Eighteen months after a man went missing, the Kancheepuram police in Tamil Nadu have unearthed his decomposed remains from a concrete barrel inside a well. The police arrested seven persons in relation to his death. According to reports, Konji Adaikkan (40) was living with his wife Pazhaniammal and daughter in Kancheepuram district. He was working as a technician in an automobile factory in Irungattukottai since 1999. One day in August 2019, Konji Adaikkan did not return home from work, which led to his wife approaching the police with a ‘missing person’ complaint.
She had also filed a Habeas Corpus petition at the High Court, to which the police responded by claiming that it was a family dispute that led to the man going missing. The investigation was intensified after Pazhaniammal discovered that a bank transfer to the tune of Rs 3.5 lakh was made from her missing husband’s bank account to her husband’s cousin’s wife Chithra in February this year. Armed with this information, Pazhaniammal approached the police once again.
Based on this, the police questioned Chithra (47) and the whole case is reported to have unraveled. As per the police, Konji Adaikkan was in a relationship with Chithra since 2009 before he got married to Pazhaniammal in 2015. However, Chithra forced him to continue his relationship with her, which led to differences between her and Konji Adaikkan. Angered by his refusal, Chithra allegedly told Konji Adaikkan to meet her for a chat near Mannivakkam.
When Konji Adaikkan reached there, a gang consisting of Elumalai and his accomplices murdered him and stuffed his body in a barrel and sealed it with concrete. After the concrete set, the barrel was thrown inside a well in Salamangalam village, police said.
The police have arrested seven persons — Chithra, her son Ranjith (24), Elumalai, Vivekanandan (26), Tarzan (29), Sathish (26) and Subramani (30) — for kidnap and murder and have remanded them to judicial custody. Further probe is underway.