Revenge act: Man kidnapped, killed for his son’s affair

CHENNAI: The mystery over the disappearance of an autorickshaw driver of Tambaram, who was last seen on November 19, ended on Monday when two men walked into a magistrate’s court in Saidapet and confessed they had killed him.

It turned out to be a case of the sins of the son being visited on the father. Police recovered the body of Syed Ismail, 48, from the bushes near Thirumudivakkam on the Tambaram-Nemilicherry road after Surendran, 32, of Nandhivaram near Guduvancherry, told them that was where he and his friend Balaji, 33, of Chinnamalai near Saidapet, had dumped it.

Police said Surendran told them that he had actually planned to kill Ismail’s son, Azharuddin, who had run away with his wife, Sumathi, three months ago. In his thirst for revenge, Surendran hired his friend Balaji, who was a history-sheeter, to eliminate Azharuddin.

On November 19, they went to Tambaram and laid in wait for Azharuddin. As he didn’t turn up, they decided to kidnap his father, Ismail, in order to force Azharuddin to come out of hiding.

Posing as customers, Surendran and Balaji boarded Ismail’s auto rickshaw. En route, they picked up a quarrel with Ismail and then strangled him. They dumped his body in some bushes on the roadside and escaped in his autorickshaw.

When Ismail did not turn up, his family lodged a complaint with the police on November 20 saying he was missing. However, the cops got no clues about the case until a week later when the magistrate informed them about two men confessing to the crime.

The magistrate remanded Surendran and Balaji in Puzhal prison. Ismail’s decomposed body was sent to the government hospital in Chrompet for autopsy.