Recovery agent Prem Kumar
Instead, mounting work pressure led the 26-year-old recovery agent to clear the dues from his own pocket. Police said Kalidas offered to repay the money and asked Prem Kumar to come to a coastal palm grove at Thuthivalasai on Oct 5. They dispersed after talks with superintendent of police G Chandeesh, but more than 50 protesters, including women, were detained.
Fetching a spade from a house his brother Prabhakaran was building, he dug a two-and-a-half-foot pit, folded the victim’s limbs and buried him, police said. Madurai: Prem Kumar ’s job was to recover a borrower’s final loan instalment. When he demanded his money back, the dispute turned deadly. Police say the borrower lured him to an isolated coastal palm grove in Ramanathapuram, hacked him to death and buried his body in a shallow grave. He allegedly attacked him from behind with a sickle, repeatedly striking his neck as the agent turned around, killing him. Kalidas covered the body with dried palm leaves and removed a two-sovereign gold chain, which he later pawned. One CCTV camera undid the deception. When Prem Kumar failed to return home, his family approached local police. Investigators traced his last call to Kalidas, who initially acknowledged only a loan-related conversation.
Relatives, suspecting accomplices, blocked the Rameswaram highway near Valantharavai bus stop on Saturday, demanding further arrests, compensation, and the collector’s intervention.
He threw the victim’s phone into water in a construction pit, walked six kilometres to Nadipalam and took a bus home,” said an investigating officer from Kennikarai police station. “Footage showing Kalidas riding the missing man’s motorcycle prompted further questioning and his arrest,” the officer said. “He rode Prem Kumar’s motorcycle to a road-widening site near Valantharavai junction and pushed it forward with the accelerator twisted, apparently staging an accident. Officials exhumed the decomposed body before tahsildar Palanikumar and revenue personnel and sent it for autopsy.