TIRUNELVELI: The CB-CID sleuths on Wednesday arrested DMK Adi Dravidar Wing Deputy Secretary Seeniammal and her husband M Thannasi (71), a retired PWD engineer, from Madurai in connection with the murder of former Tirunelveli Corporation Mayor M Uma Maheswari, her husband Murugasankar (72) and their housemaid Mari (50).
The trio was stabbed to death at Maheswari’s house in Melapalayam here on July 23 last. 21-sovereign jewellery worn by Maheswari also went missing. Subsequently, the police arrested Seeniammal’s son Karthikeyan in connection with the murder. Karthikeyan is currently lodged at Palayamkottai Central Prison. Sources said that Karthikeyan confessed to the murders and told the sleuths that it was his mother and father who instigated him to commit the crime.
A CB-CID official privy to the investigation, on condition of anonymity, told TNIE that the duo was arrested in Karisalkulam in Madurai and was produced before Judicial Magistrate II in Tirunelveli District Court. “The couple had been under police lens since they were contacted by Karthikeyan over phone before and after the time of murder. Through Karthikeyan’s confession, we have learnt that the couple had decided to murder Maheswari as they viewed her as a block to Seeniammal’s political growth.
Hence, they instigated their son to commit the murder,” the source added. The sleuths also learned that Seeniammal and Maheswari had an ongoing financial dispute. Meanwhile, an official release from the investigating agency said that the couple had monitored the former mayor’s house and plotted the murders.