P Chidambaram's kin abducted & killed, motive still unknown

A close relative of senior Congress leader and former union minister P Chidambaram was reportedly abducted and murdered by a three-member gang.

Police on Wednesday said they had arrested three men in Vellore on Tuesday night in connection with the murder of Tirupur based knitwear exporters C Sivamurthy, 47. He had gone missing on Monday and his body was fished out from Kelevarapalli dam in Hosur in Krishnagiri district on Wednesday.

Sivamurthy was the son-in-law of the younger sister of Chidambaram's wife, Nalini. Following a missing complaint file by Chinnasamy with Tirupur North police on Tuesday morning, a highway patrol team on the Chennai-Bengaluru Highway traced Sivamurthy's car to an area near Vellore through the GPS device fitted in the vehicle on Tuesday night.

On being questioned, the trio said they abducted Shivamurthy from Tirupur, took him to Mettupalayam near Coimbatore on Monday and killed him. Later, they dumped his body at the dam in Hosur, the police said. The trio were identified as Gouthaman, Vimal and Manibharathi of Coimbatore.

Based on their confession, another person was arrested at Karamadai, about 35 km from Coimbatore on Wednesday morning.

Acting on their information, the police retrieved the body of Sivamurthy from the dam after a three-hour long search. His body was sent to Hosur Government Hospital for a post-mortem. Police said they were still looking into the reason for the murder.