Gang admits to killing missing taxi driver

Coimbatore: The Salem city police have arrested a four-member gang that killed a Mettupalayam-based cab driver two months ago.
The victim, K Shanmuga Sundaram, 54, of Cheran Nagar in Mettupalayam, had gone missing on March 24. He had informed his wife S Geetha that some people had hired the cab to reach Perundurai in Erode district around 11.30am. When Geetha called him in the evening, someone attended the call and told her that he had found the phone on the road near the Sangagiri toll plaza.She lodged a complaint with the Mettupalayam police on March 25.
Police registered a missing case but could not trace Sundaram.
Meanwhile, assistant commissioner of Salem city police west range J Nagaraja on Friday received a tip-off about four people, including two history-sheeters, planning to commit a series of crimes. A police team nabbed the gang from Kuranguchavadi on the Salem-Bengaluru national highway.
“Gang leader B Vimalraj, 33, of Perambalur district confessed that they had kidnapped and murdered Sundaram to steal the car. They burnt his body at Sangagiri in Salem and sold the car in Chitoor in Andhra Pradesh,” a police officer said.
Police identified the other gang members as C Kumar, 30, of Mettupalayam, N Karthikeyan, 24, of Jagirammapalayam in Salem city and A G Balaji, 38, of Sarkarkollapatty in Salem city. “Vimalraj is facing more than 15 cases, including eight murder cases,” the officer added.
The Mettupalayam police have altered the missing case to murder case.
Sundaram is survived by his wife and two sons.