Star-jinxed' couple found dead

Kottayam: The bodies of two lovers, who had gone missing from Munnar on February 20, were found in a car that lay submerged in a canal of the Parampi-kulam-Aaliyar project at Udumalpetta on Wednesday morning. The police suspect that the two, Arun Shanker, 35,  and Manjula, 30, had committed suicide.

Arun is the son of Guruswamy, a businessman from Erippalayam State Bank Colony near Udumalpetta in Tiruppur district of Tamil Nadu, and Manjula is  daughter of Ramachandran, school teacher of   Bodipetti Revenue Nagar in the Marayur-Udumalpetta road. Arun was running a wheel alignment business company.

It is said that their families had opposed their marriage after their engagement was held. The parents of Arun allegedly asked him to withdraw from the marriage on the basis of the advice of an astrologer that Manjula had some problems in her horoscope. The relatives of the two had filed a complaint at the Udumalpetta police station on February 20  about their disappearance.

The police and the fire force retrieved the car from the  canal after being informed by the local people. The bodies, which  were in a decayed  state, were shifted to the Udumalpetta taluk hospital mortuary.