Within 48 hours after a retired bank manager was hacked to death in his house at East Ambikapuram here, special teams of the city police cracked the case by arresting three persons on the charge of committing the crime.
The weapons used by the three — P. Sathishkumar (29) of Ariyamangalam, S. Sathishkumar (24) of Karur and Shankar of Tiruchi — to commit the brutal murder were recovered by the teams.
The victim, P. Rathinam (69), a retired manager of State Bank of India, was done to death by a three-member car-borne gang in the upstairs portion of his house situated at Venkateswara Nagar on Monday afternoon.
The three landed at the house of Rathinam under the pretext of seeing the upstairs portion which was let out for rent.
The killers abandoned the car and fled the spot after committing the murder. Five special police teams were constituted to apprehend the killers.
During the course of investigation, the teams found that the car used by the killers belonged to a person by name A. Nagaiyan of Woraiyur who was a photographer. Nagaiyan used to take the assistance of Sathishkumar of Karur for taking photographs in marriage functions in Karur.
Probe further revealed that the three were involved in the crime. They had planned to extort money from Rathinam and eliminate him if he refused, Commissioner of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav said.
Mr. Yadav told presspersons here on Wednesday that money was the motive behind the killing.
Sathishkumar and the other two became friends when they were lodged in the Tiruchi Central Prison in the past.
