Charred bodies of four members of family found near Palani

DINDIGUL: Charred bodies of four members of a family were found at Vathagoundanvalasu near Palani in Tamil Nadu in the early hours of Saturday. Police said the family members could have been murdered by someone before the bodies were placed in a haystack and set it on fire.
The deceased have been identified as Murugesan, 52, a farmer, his wife Valarmathi, 45, and their children Sivaranjini, 21, and Karthikeyan.
Sivaranjini was a B Com graduate and Karthikeyan was pursuing B Com in a private college in Palani.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that they returned home on Friday night after attending a family function. In the early hours of Saturday, Murugesan’s neighbours saw a fire emerging from a haystack and tried to alert him. As he did not answer calls, they informed the fire and rescue services department.
While putting out the flames, firefighters found the charred bodies of the four people and alerted police. The bodies were sent to the Dindigul Medical College Hospital for postmortem.
Inspector general of police for South Zone T S Anbu, deputy IG of Dindigul range B Vijayakumari and Dindigul district superintendent of police V R Srinivasan visited the spot and conducted inquiries. Fingerprint and forensic experts and the dog squad were pressed to service. Special teams were formed to crack the case. Inquiries were being conducted with their kin.