Many motives are surfacing in the investigation of the sensational ‘Auditor’ Ramesh murder case in Salem. As sleuths of the Special Investigation Division (SID) of the Crime Branch CID launched an in-depth probe, various angles have cropped up, including the possibility of land deals or religious fundamentalism being behind it.
Agency sources said the name of the Bharatiya Janata Party state general secretary appeared in some land deals. In a few instances, he had disputed land deals by filing petitions under the Right to Information (RTI) Act or by other means.
“It is just not the religious fundamentalism angle…there are land deals in which some Muslims were parties. In another revelation, investigators said Ramesh vehemently opposed the marriage of a Muslim boy with a Hindu girl last year giving rise to the suspicion of a personal motive,” a senior CBCID official told The Hindu on Tuesday.
Though a security guard who witnessed the murder was able to identify one of the three or four assailants, police are leaving no stone unturned when it came to fixing the motive. “We are probing all possible angles’’, he said.
Police were trying to look for similarities in the murders of Ramesh and Vellaiyappan, State secretary of the Hindu Munnani who was murdered in a similar fashion in Vellore on July 1.
During the Ganesh Chaturthi festival last year, Ramesh and Vellaiyappan led the idol immersion procession.
“There are some similarities in the way they were done to death. While religious fundamentalism is the main suspicion, we cannot rule out land deals and other personal motives,” the official said.
Parrying questions on whether a breakthrough was likely soon, he said that police were relying on electronic evidence to finalise certain aspects of the probe.
“All I can assure is that the CBCID has launched a meticulous investigation. There is no hurry to suspect or fix any accused or organization…every action will be based on admissible evidence.”
Besides deploying its senior officials like the Additional Director-General of Police Karan Singha and Inspector-General of Police M.N. Manjunatha in the investigation, the CBCID has also roped in the Tirunelveli Commissioner of Police Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, who recently returned to State service after completing seven-year tenure in the Central Bureau of Investigation, the sources added.
