Murder of taxi driver: Three held

The culprits involved in the cold-blooded murder wherein Hyderali, driver of a taxi car, was charred to death, were arrested here on Wednesday. Tamil Nadu natives Chinnaraja, 20, Sebastian, 45, and Mony, 25, hailing from Kothamed in Munnar, are the arrested. The fourth accused in the case Siva, 25, has been absconding.

It was on last Thursday that the police found the charred body of Hyderali at Kuruppampady near here. According to the police, Mony, who was staying at a rented house at Vaikara near here had hatched the murder plot. His idea was to steal vehicles and run as taxis. He discussed the murder plan with the other three accused while he was undergoing imprisonment in a case of snatching mobile phones. According to the plan, Mony first approached the drivers at Perumbavoor taxi stand. As they refused to go for a long journey, he went to Kuruppampady and hired Hyderali’s car.

He also hesitated to go for a long trip. But when Mony compelled him, he agreed to go for the trip to Pooppara as he was in dire need of Rs 1,500 to pay the instalment amount of the car.

Mony hired the car on the pretext of visiting his mother-in-law in Tanil Nadu. The other three joined him from near the District Hospital at Perumbavoor. At Pooppara Mony’s wife Leena joined them. Then Mony and wife went to visit the mother-in-law in Tamil Nadu and others stayed back at Pooppara. On the return journey, Mony left his wife at home and the other three joined the journey to Perumbavoor. When they reached Nellimugal next day early morning, Mony asked Hyderali to stop the car and all of them got out of the car.

Soon Chinnaraja hit Hyderali on his head from the back. Hyderali fell unconscious. When he regained consciousness after a while he found that the culprits did not leave the place. When he tried to hit them back the miscreants atttacked him with a hammer on his face. He fell down and breathed his last. They covered his body with a towel, splashed petrol and set it on fire. Mony then took the car to Tamil Nadu to change the colour and registration.

When the police nabbed him, he was running the car in Munnar as a taxi. Police have found that his two accomplices, Sebastian and Siva, were the workers at a scrap iron store in Perumbavoor.

 Perumbavoor DySP K Harikrishnan and Kuruppampady CI Crispin Sam led the probe team.