ERODE: Three men were arrested on Monday on charges of murdering a car driver, dumping his body in the LBP canal near Bhavanisagar in Erode district and selling his vehicle to a scrap yard in Mettupalayam.The murdered man has been identified as Jayachandran, 50, of Usilampatti in Madurai district. Police arrested S Dhanraj, 40, of Venganayakkanpalayam in Erode district, P Balamurugan,52, of Valangottai in Dindigul district and S Anand, 42, of Pandian Nagar in Tirupur in connection with the murder.Jayachandran’s body was recovered from stagnant water near the canal’s iron bridge between Mettupalayam Road and Puliyampatti Road on Sept 26.Police initially registered a suspicious-death case. Jayachandran’ wife, Ramaprabha, said he had left in his car to take passengers to Sathyamangalam. As the car could not be seen in the area where the body was found, police suspected foul play. Postmortem found that he had been strangled, following which police registered a murder case.During a vehicle check at Thoppampalayam Four Roads, Bhavanisagar police stopped a minivan whose occupants gave contradictory answers. “Interrogation revealed that the men had abandoned an earlier plan to steal from a temple, contacted a car rental number in Usilampatti and hired Jayachandran’s vehicle,” said inspector T Annam. She added they strangled Jayachandran with a cloth near Mudukkanthurai market, dumped his body in the canal, sold the car and shared the money.
