'Real culprits' held in varsity staff murder case

Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, Feb 8 (UNI) Investigations into last month's murder of an employee of Annamalai University took a curious turn today, with the arrest of three more people 'who carried out the attack.' Police here said K Natarajan (45), S Manikandan (27) and R Raja (25), already in jail in the case, had confessed that they had surrendered for money and R Sivamani (24), M Kumar (26) and K Sakthivel (25) had actually carried out the heinous act.

On January 31, a day after the incident, Natarajan of Perumathur village, Manikandan of Sathakudi village and Raja of Paramedu, all near Chidambaram, had surrendered before the Judicial Magistrate II, who remanded them to judicial custody.

They informed the police that Sivamani and Kumar had actually murdered R Sivasamy (38), an assistant in the office of the Vice-Chancellor of Annamalai University, in the campus on January 30. Sakthivel was in charge of passing information on the victim's movements.

A local court in Neyveli remanded Sivamani, Kumar and Sakthivel in judicial custody till February 22.

Sivasamy was riding a motorcycle to the office when some people waylaid and attacked him with sharp weapons, close to the Vice-Chancellor's residence on the campus. He suffered cut injuries on the hand and neck. He was rushed to the Rajah Muthiah Medical College Hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

UNI XR GM PDT HT2040