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SALEM: The Salem city police have arrested three people, including a woman, on charges of murdering a 55-year-old woman to rob her of four sovereigns of gold jewellery. The murder came to light on Aug 31 when K Ramesh, 62, a temple priest living on Gunabalan Ramasamy Street in Arisipalayam, opened a rooftop water tank at his house and found a sack containing body parts. A special police team traced the suspects using mobile phone records and arrested Nandini, 28, a cook from Sukkampatti, her boyfriend, Malik Basha, 27, a driver from Alagapuram, and their friend Sivaraman, 29, a labourer from Kuranguchavadi, on Tuesday. They strangled her in the early hours of Aug 29.
A police officer said Nandini had lured Thangamani to her aunt’s house in Arisipalayam on the pretext of offering her a cooking job. “Malik Basha and Sivaraman joined her there,” said the officer. After murdering her, Malik Basha chopped the body into pieces, packed them in sacks and dumped in water tanks to avoid detection,” the officer said.
After murdering the woman, the trio had chopped her body into pieces, packed them in bags and dumped them in two rooftop water tanks of a house. Later, the Pallapatti police recovered body parts — stuffed in bags — from two water tanks on the same premises. “The trio had planned to rob Thangamani of her jewellery. Police recovered four sovereigns of jewellery, including a chain, nose ring and thali from the trio.
They were remanded in judicial custody on Wednesday.