Villupuram (Tamil Nadu), June 6: A 16-year-old's anguished revelations on a TV talk show might end up bringing the guilty to book in a triple murder committed four years ago.
In the crime show aired a week ago, the teenager broke down on questioning by the anchor and implicated her father, A Murugan, in the murder of a man, his young daughter and son-in-law in 2008.
Alerted by the man's wife who watched the show, and following the leads, police on Tuesday exhumed the skeletal remains of the three victims from Murugan's house in a village in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. A manhunt is on for Murugan, who went missing on May 17, the day the show was recorded.
Villupuram deputy superintendent of police G Sekar told TOI that a satellite channel had invited the 16-year-old girl, who had eloped with her boyfriend K Satish Kumar, 21, a month ago, to take part in a show on real life crime stories.
Her parents, Murugan and Rajeswari, of Nallanpillai Petral village, were also invited to be on the show, recorded on May 17 at the channel's studio in Chennai. During the show, the girl refused to go with her parents, saying her father would murder her if she went with them. She said her mother Rajeswari had told her that her father poisoned a young couple and the woman's father and buried their bodies near a well in their house.
Rajeswari intervened immediately, saying she did not witness the triple murder. But she said that every time they quarelled, her husband would threaten to kill her like he had killed three people in their house. The anchor of the show on Zee Tamil, Nirmala Periyasamy, who tried to mediate between the girl and her parents during the show, said, "The girl was constantly telling us that she was afraid of her father, as he may murder her and her husband. When I repeatedly questioned her, the girl broke down and told us that her father had murdered three persons in their house in 2008."
The anchor said the channel sent officials to the village to verify the girl's claim. "We sent a crew to the village and tried to verify if what the girl had said was true. We found that three persons, Lavanya, Silambarasan and Sekar, had gone missing from the village in 2008. It was only after confirming this, that we telecast the programme on May 28," she added.
After the show was recorded, Murugan claimed to be innocent and left with Rajeswari to their village. "Furious with his wife for backing up their daughter's accusation, he abused her on the bus to their village," an officer said. "He got down at Tindivanam and left saying she would never see him alive again."
The programme was telecast by the channel on May 28. Three days later, a woman approached Villupuram SP N Baskaran stating that her husband A Sekar, a well-digger, her daughter A Lavanya, and her lover A Silambarasan had gone missing over three years ago. Baskaran forwarded the complaint to Villupuram taluk police and a police team visited the village and dug up the remains of the victims.
'Lure of gold led to couple's murder'
DSP Sekar said the woman did not lodge a complaint when her husband went missing in December 2008. He disappeared while trying to locate their daughter who had eloped with her boyfriend. "She said we believed that her husband found the couple wand was staying with them," he said. "After watching the show, she feared her husband, daughter and son-in-law were murdered and approached police on June 1."
The investigating officer said Murugan played mediator between Sekar and his daughter Lavanya and Silambarasan. "They had left the Lavanya's gold jewellery with Murugan for safekeeping," he said. "There was an altercation when Sekar asked Murugan to return the jewellery."
Murugan decided to eliminate them and keep the gold so he gave them food laced with poison, he said. The sofa-maker buried the bodies in the backyard of his house.
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