TN businessman hires goons to murder wife

Police on Friday arrested a businessman for hiring two men to murder his wife at their residence in Morattupalayam village near Uthukuli. The henchmen and two others connected to the attempted murder were also arrested. Preliminary inquiries revealed that Manimaran had planned to murder his wife, Maankani, as she had come to know of his affair with a labourer working in their company.

Police said, Maankani, 35, lodged a complaint with the Uthukuli police on Friday. In her complaint, she accused two unidentified people of attempting to smother her with a pillow, when she was sleeping on the first floor of her residence around 2.40 am. The duo, however, fled when she raised an alarm. She alerted the police who reached the house and conducted an inquiry.

Maankani and her husband Manimaran, both from different communities had been in a relationship and married 14 years ago. Manimaran was running a banian company named Dawn Man apparels in Tirupur for 10 years. He had shifted the company to his hometown one and a half years ago. While the family resides on the first floor, the banian company functions on the ground floor.

Manimaran had been having an affair with one of the labourers for the last 11 years. Maankani had recently learnt of her husband’s affair. Manimaran thus planned to have her murdered and assured his friend Velu, 34, from Nochikuttai in Dharmapuri district a sum of 2.50 lakh for getting it done.

Velu then contacted his friend Vivek alias Vivekananthan, 35, from Pappireddipatti in Dharmapuri to hire the henchmen. Vivek sent Munirathinam, 27, and R San Joseph, both from Pappireddipatti.

The Uthukuli police registered an attempt to murder case and arrested the five people on Friday afternoon. They were later remanded in judicial custody.