Image credit : Illustrative image

Coimbatore : Knitwear exporter C Shivamurthy (47), a distant relative of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was abducted and murdered by three paid goondas, who were nabbed late last night.

According to police, the family of Shivamurthy lodged a missing complaint on June 25, as he had not returned home in Tirupur from office that day.

Police traced his car around midnight near Vellore through the GPRS fitted in the vehicle,On alert from Tirupur police to control room in Vellore, the national highway patrol team located the car at Vengili and nabbed three persons in the vehicle, police said.

Interrogation revealed that the trio had abducted Sivamurtny from Tirupur and taken him to Mettupalayam near Coimbatore and murdered him on June 25. They dumped the body in a lake near Hosur, after moving around for nearly two days.

The trio were identified as Gouthaman, Vimal and Manibharathi of Coimbatore and were taken to Hosur as part of recovering the body. Further inquiry revealed that Sivamurthny had illicit relationship with a female worker in his factory and despite warning from her husband he continued it.

Angered over this, Murthy, husband of the worker, Bhuvaneshwari engaged the trio to finish Sivamurthy off, police said.

Murthy was arrested in Karamadai, about 35 km from here this morning. Sivamurthy was the son-in-law of Chidambaram’s sister-in-law.