Investigation into the death of two persons at Pallapatti, who had consumed TASMAC liquor bought in black market on Wednesday, has revealed that cyanide had been mixed in the liquor to settle scores with bootlegger Jayachandran.
The police on Thursday arrested six more persons, including P. Rajalingam, supervisor of TASMAC shop in Kodai Road, P. Tamilvanan, his relative, Krishnamoorthy (a native healer) all from Pallapatti and one Balu of Madurai, who had supplied cyanide.
Already Jayachandran and his accomplice, Selvam, have been arrested for illegally selling liquor bottles at a chicken shop. R. Murugan and T. Sairam, who had consumed liquor bought from the chicken shop, died at the spot while Thangapandi was admitted to the Government Rajaji Hospital.
Inspector General of Police (South Zone) K. P. Shanmuga Rajeswaran, who has been camping in Dindigul since Wednesday, told The Hindu that it was a case of conspiracy to trap Jayachandran.
Jayachandran, who had been buying liquor bottles regularly from Rajalingam’s TASMAC shop, used to share a portion of the profit with him.
However, in the last three months, Jayachandran switched over to another shop near Maavur dam. Rajalingam developed enmity with Jayachandran as he lost his regular income.
Meanwhile, one Tamilvanan of Pallapatti too had developed enmity with Jayachandran as he was instrumental in removal of Tamilvanan’s chicken shop at Pallapatti in the past.
“The duo joined hands to take revenge on Jayachandran by clandestinely mixing poison in the liquor bottles in his illegal possession,” the IGP said.
Bottles replaced
On Monday, the duo sent one A. Krishnamoorthy to buy five quarter bottles of liquor of a particular brand from Jayachandran’s chicken shop.
“Then, (healer) Krishnamoorthy had mixed cyanide, which he had procured from a goldsmith in Madurai, with the liquor,” the IGP said. Next day, the team sent one Senthil, 30, to buy another five bottles of liquor of the same brand from the chicken shop.
“Within a few minutes of getting possession of the bottles, Senthil had asked for five bottles of another brand of liquor. Since the (new) brand (of liquor) was of higher price, Jayachandran had agreed for exchange. At this point of time, Senthil had returned five cyanide-laced bottles to Jayachandran,” Mr. Rajeswaran said.
Since, Rajalingam was a TASMAC supervisor, he had pasted the Excise label on the bottles to make them look like fresh ones. Jayachandran too had failed to take note of this on the returned bottles.
“Of the five poison-laced bottles, the three victims had bought two bottles. We have recovered two more bottles, while one was drained earlier,” the IGP added.
How it was cracked
The IGP said that among different angles of investigation, the police first ruled out any motive to kill the two victims, who belonged to different villages. “When we looked at the ‘trapping of the bootlegger’ angle, we found that five bottles were returned the previous day. Hence, the needle of suspicion pointed to Nagalingam due to the personal enmity he had with Jayachandran,” he said.