His body was found halfburnt with his hands and legs tied. Police said that the door was broken open after his neighbours noticed smoke emanating from the apartment located on MKN Road, Alandur.

Police identified the deceased as Mohammed Sultan of Panruti in Cuddalore.

He was a realtor and was also involved in mobile phone business.

Sultan was staying in a rented house on the first floor of an apartment complex in Alandur. He was staying alone, but neighbours had seen women visiting his house, reportedly to repair their mobile phones.

As the owner of the flat refused to rent the apartment to a bachelor, Sultan told the house owner Balasubramanian, a retired co-operative bank employee residing on Tambaram – Mudichur Road, that he was married, and he would bring his wife soon from Cuddalore to Chennai.

But he had failed to bring his wife even after two and a half years.

Balasubramaniam had filed a complaint at the St Thomas mount police station, a month ago saying that his tenant had not paid rent for many months.

After the alert from the neighbours on Wednesday, fire tenders from Guindy and a police team from Mount rushed to the spot.

When they broke open the door and went inside house they found Sultan dead. His body also had cut injuries and his mouth was stuffed with cell phone pouches.

Police said that the murderers after attacking him with weapons, had tied him up and burnt him with kerosene kept in the house. “It could be a case of business rivalry as he was into real estate business. Police are also investigating the angle of illicit relationship,” the police noted.

Mount police have registered a case and are trying to identify the murderers and browsing the CCTV footage collected from the neighbourhood.