Police teams on Thursday continued searching Perungudi dumpyard for the body of a 20-year-old woman who was allegedly murdered along with her husband, Gaurav Kumar, a migrant labourer, and their son from Bihar. Acting on statements from garbage truck drivers who had dumped waste collected from Indira Nagar in Adyar on Monday, the teams cordoned off multiple locations within the yard.
The investigation began after police found an abandoned sack containing the body of a young male on January 26 in Indira Nagar, Adyar. Further inquiries identified the body as that of Gaurav Kumar, and police realised that his wife Munitha and son Birmani Kumar, had also been murdered, and that their bodies had been dumped at different locations in the city.
While the child’s body was recovered from the Buckingham Canal in Adyar, Munitha’s body is yet to be traced. So far, three natives of Bihar, have been arrested in connection with the murders.
Police said Gaurav Kumar, a native of Nalanda district in Bihar, had been working as a security guard at a private company in Sriperumbudur, a Chennai suburb, for the past two years. On January 21, he, accompanied by his family, returned from a trip home and had to find a new job in Chennai.
Through contacts in his hometown, Gaurav approached Krishna Prasad, 60, also from Bihar. The latter worked as a security guard and lived with his family in Taramani. Krishna Prasad introduced him to several acquaintances from Bihar employed as security guards in nearby buildings. Gaurav and his family were accommodated in Krishna Prasad’s house and moved to the homes of other migrant workers as he continued his search for a job.
On January 25, while drinking together with some of the workers, Gaurav Kumar got into a quarrel with a security guard, Sikander, 33, and four of his friends. During the fight, Gaurav was attacked first. When his wife saw this, she attempted to flee with their son, but the gang assaulted them with an iron rod, killing both on the spot.
Sikander and his associates wrapped Gaurav Kumar’s body in a sack and dumped it in front of a two-wheeler showroom on Indira Nagar First Avenue. Police secured CCTV footage showing two suspects transporting the body on a two-wheeler before dumping it. The child’s body was retrieved from where it was dumped amid bushes along the Buckingham Canal near Madhya Kailash. Those arrested claimed that they had stuffed the woman’s body in a sack and threw into a garbage bin near the Indira Nagar MRTS railway station.
Meanwhile, the arrested suspects were taken to the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) block, the scene of the crime, to recreate the sequence of events that unfolded on the night of January 25.
Published – January 30, 2026 12:47 am IST