Charred body of Congress’s Tirunelveli East district president found on his own farm

Tirunelveli Congress leader found dead, police suspect murder, investigation ongoing, family believes premeditated murder, suicide angle also probed.

The charred body of the Congress party’s Tirunelveli East, District Committee president, K.P.K. Jeyakumar Dhanasingh, 60, was retrieved from his farm in Karaichuthupudur near Thisayanvilai, on Saturday, May 4, 2024. Police suspect he was murdered and the body subsequently burnt.

Mr. Jeyakumar had been missing from his home from around 7 p.m. on May 2, and his son, Karuthaiah Jefrin had filed a police complaint on Friday, May 3, with the Uvari police. The police, after launching a search, retrieved Mr. Jeyakumar’s body, completely burnt, from his 10-acre farm, adjacent to his house. The body was sent to the Government Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem.

Sources in the police said the body was found in the garbage yard on the farm, after a farm worker went there. The body was found with the hands and legs tied with electric cables. As the insulation on the electric cables had melted when the body was burnt, only the copper wires around his hands and legs were found.

However the police are also looking into other causes for the death, including suicide. The family has told the police they believe this was a premeditated murder.

 “If this was a premeditated murder, the killers would not have chosen the victim’s premises for disposing of the body. They would also not have attempted to destroy the body by burning it on the farm adjacent to the victim’s house. They would have taken the body elsewhere to dispose of it, more so, since the victim was an office-bearer of a leading political party. We are probing all angles,” a police officer said.

Mr. Jeyakumar, had, on April 30, filed a complaint with the Superintendent of Police, Tirunelveli, N. Silambarasan, accusing eight persons of issuing death threats to him following a financial dispute. He had said in the complaint that he was submitting the petition following the suspicious movement of strangers near his house at night.

Among the eight names on Mr. Jeyakumar’s list are: a sitting MLA from Tirunelveli district, a former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president, and a Congress youth wing office-bearer, who is also the son of late disqualified Congress MLA from Tirunelveli district.