Erode: Greed can push human beings to unimaginable levels and dastardly acts.
Like the recent incident in Erode, where a woman allegedly burnt alive her 62-year-old husband in a van, with the help of a relative.
The motive of their heinous crime was to claim Rs 1.3 crore insurance money. The 57-year-old woman and her accomplice have been arrested and charged with murder.
K Rangaraj, a resident of Thudupathi in Erode district, was injured in an accident last month in a power loom which he owned. After a prolonged treatment in a private hospital in Coimbatore, he was discharged two days ago.
On way back home, his wife R Jothimani and relative Raja got down from the van they had hired and set it on fire.
“When the vehicle reached Perumanallur around 11.30 pm, Raja stopped the vehicle. He and Jothimani got down, poured petrol and set it on fire. Rangaraj was burnt alive. On Friday morning, Raja informed Tirupur police about the death, which he said was an accident,” The Times of India quoted a police officer as narrating.
On being questioned following the unnatural death, Raja’s responses lacked consistency, making the police suspicious.
The police then obtained CCTV footage from a petrol station where Raja had purchased fuel during the journey.
Confronted with video evidence, Raja confessed that they had burnt Rangaraj alive.
The investigation subsequently revealed that Rangaraj had borrowed Rs 1.5 crore from several lenders, who kept asking Jothimani for the money to be returned.
Rangaraj had purchased three insurance policies worth Rs 3.5 crore, with Jothimani being the nominee. Jothimani decided to kill him and make it appear like an accident, with the intention to claim the insurance amount. She approached Raja, who agreed to help her for money. She gave him Rs 50,000 as advance, and Rs 1 lakh was to be paid after Rangaraj’s elimination.
