Ramanathapuram: Missing man suspected to be killed; remains exhumed

RAMANATHAPURAM: Charred remains of a person were exhumed from a burial site at Eral on Tuesday. The body is yet to be identified as the police are awaiting a DNA test report. However, according to police sources, the body is suspected to be of 43-year-old Kumar, whose wife had lodged a complaint with Ervadi police on Tuesday about her missing husband.

On Thursday, police detained eight persons in connection with the case. Kumar, a member of fishermen cooperative society, is claimed to have gone missing after he left home on his two-wheeler on Monday afternoon to attend a meeting at the Department of Fisheries office. In her complaint, his wife claimed that Kumar did not return home since he left for the meeting.

Acting on the complaint, sources said, Ervadi police tracked Kumar’s mobile phone and found his vehicle abandoned at Valantharavai. Kumar had unsuccessfully contested for the post of Ervadi panchayat president as an independent in the recent rural local body elections. 

Special branch police on Tuesday received a tip-off that charred remains of a person was buried in a burial ground in Eral and it could be of Kumar’s. Led by Superintendent of Police V Varun Kumar, a team exhumed charred remains - skull and bones - on the same day and sent the samples for a DNA test to ascertain the identity. Varun Kumar said that based on the circumstantial evidence, the body could be of the missing person Kumar. “He could have been killed due to a gang feud over sharing of gold jewellery, allegedly smuggled,” he said.