Out for a walk and gone forever: examining cases of some high-profile murders in Tamil Nadu

Morning walks in Tamil Nadu have turned deadly for high-profile individuals, with several gruesome murders remaining unsolved.

Some morning walks have left behind a bloody trail in Tamil Nadu in this millennium. High-profile individuals, including politicians, have met with a gory end during their morning walks when they were attacked by assailants. The earliest such case occurred on December 30, 2001, when the former AIADMK MLA, M.K. Balan, did not return home from his routine walk on a misty morning in Chennai. His son lodged a complaint with the Foreshore Estate Police and filed a habeas corpus petition in the Madras High Court.

What unfolded in the investigation is a spine-chilling sequence of abduction for ransom, wrongful detention for several days, murder and disposal of the body with a fake death certificate to erase evidence. A week after the police found no clues, the case was transferred to the Crime Branch-CID. Amid mounting pressure from political parties and the media that floated conspiracies, it took more than two months for the CB-CID to get the first lead.

A special team, headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police T.N. Venkateswaran, arrested Balamurugan of Perambur, a member of the gang that abducted the former legislator. The gang believed Balan had amassed wealth and his family would pay a ransom for his life. Senthil Kumar and Poonga Nagar Manickam played a key role in his abduction. During interrogation, the accused made startling revelations. They had tracked his morning routine and abducted him in a vehicle, which they drove to a vermicelli factory at Mudichur in suburban Chennai. It was a secluded area those days.

The CB-CID recorded in a journal published later that the intention of the gang was to extract a hefty sum from the family. When the plan failed, they murdered Balan on the night of January 1, 2002. They obtained a death certificate with fictitious entries and used it to cremate the body at the Corporation burial ground at Tambaram. The death certificate, issued by a doctor, recorded that one Rajamani Chettiar had died of a heart ailment. Since the body was cremated, the question of post-mortem did not arise.

The case was then altered to that of abduction and murder. The police arrested all 18 persons involved in the murder. Three vans, one SUV, two cars, and two motorcycles, used in the commission of the offences, were seized at different locations. Investigators also found the shoes worn by Balan that day. Two audio cassettes, containing his voice, were also recovered from the scene of crime. However, these prosecution claims were disputed in the court. Backed by material and scientific evidence, the CB-CID filed a charge sheet on January 17, 2003. After more than a year, the trial court sentenced 16 accused persons to life imprisonment and acquitted two others. One person was later acquitted by the Madras High Court, the CB-CID said.

On May 20, 2003, the temple city of Madurai woke up to news of the brutal murder of three-time parliamentarian and a former Minister (1996-2001), Tha Kiruttinan, of the DMK. He was hacked by a gang near his house at K.K. Nagar, a prominent residential locality, during his morning walk. The murder was seen as a fallout of the factional feud in the party, which was then in the Opposition.

Within 24 hours, the Madurai city police arrested M.K. Alagiri, the elder son of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, in connection with the crime. A few others, including P.M. Mannan, who later became the Deputy Mayor, Mubarak Manthiri, who later became a councillor, Essar Gobi, and Siva alias ‘Karate’ Siva, were picked up. After the DMK returned to power in 2006, the AIADMK moved the Supreme Court to transfer the trial to some other State to ensure that it was free and fair. The case was then transferred to the Chittoor court in Andhra Pradesh. However, five years later, Mr. Alagiri and a dozen others were acquitted by the trial court for lack of reliable evidence. To this day, the question remains as to who murdered the former Minister and why.