Brother killed over property; 2 held at Puthupariyaram

Palakkad: The eldest brother of a family was beaten and strangled to death by his two younger brothers at their house at Puthupariyaram in Palakkad during a quarrel over sharing of their property. After torturing the victim for two days, his dead body was dumped into the septic tank near the house a week ago. The deceased is Manikandan, 47, son of Parakkal Vasu, who is a lottery agent. The accused are his brothers Ramamachandran, 45, a constable with CISF and Rajesh, 36, a tailor.

ManikandanCI Premananda Krishnan C, who is the investigation officer in the case, told DC that Hemambika Nagar police which had been investigating the man-missing case questioned the two brothers and found contradictions in their statements. “On Monday they confessed that they had committed the murder after locking up Manikandan in their house post a heated argument over a legal dispute. The dispute was over sharing 28 cents of ancestral property and Rs 4 lakh fixed deposit that Manikanda had. They also revealed that the body was dumped in the septic tank and it was recovered by the police,” CI said.

Manikandan had filed a case over not getting a share of the ancestral property whereas it was shared among the remaining five siblings. He also threatened to block the wedding of a younger brother Krishnakumar, who is working abroad,  and refused to give money towards wedding expenses from his fixed deposit, CI added.  The two brothers were charged with murder and presented before the Judicial First Class magistrate here on Monday night.