The sons of a government school lab assistant called an insurance company within 15 minutes of their father’s death to initiate a claim, a move that eventually led to the unravelling of a murder-for-insurance plot near Tiruttani, police investigation has revealed.
It may be recalled that a police team recently solved the mystery surrounding the death of the government school lab assistant, whose sons had initially claimed that their father died of snake bite. Following a probe, the police arrested the victim’s two sons along with four others for murdering him by orchestrating a snake bite to claim insurance money.
Tiruvallur Superintendent of Police Vivekanand Shukla told The Hindu, “Our special team found that the sons had contacted one of the insurance companies to claim the policy amount within 15 minutes after a doctor declared their father dead at the hospital. This raised suspicion within the insurance company, following which our investigation revealed that it was a case of murder for insurance money.”
Mr. Shukla said that technical and field-level investigations uncovered the true nature of the crime, which was initially projected as a case of accidental snake bite death. “The investigation brought to light a well-orchestrated criminal conspiracy driven by financial motives, resulting in the murder of the deceased,” he said.
On October 22, police received an information about the death of the victim, E.P. Ganesan, 56, who was reported to have died due to an alleged snake bite at Pothatturpettai village. The accomplices arranged for a snake and staged the incident to resemble an accidental snake bite. In the early hours of the day of the incident, a krait snake was procured, brought into the house and deliberately made to bite the deceased on the neck.
After the snake bit the victim, the accused killed the snake inside the house to create a false impression of an accidental snake bite and to eliminate any further risk of exposure. Following a call from one of the accused to claim the insured sum, a representative of one of the insurance companies conveyed their suspicion to the police.
Police said the disproportionate level of liabilities and multiple insurance policies, when compared with the known sources of income of the family, raised serious doubts about the actual cause of the death. The deceased had availed insurance coverage from more than three companies.
Further investigation revealed that the victim’s sons, Mohanraj and Hariharan, had conspired with four other associates to murder their father with the intention of claiming insurance proceeds. All six accused — the two sons, Hariharan and Mohanraj, and four others — were arrested in connection with the case. They will be taken into police custody for further interrogation, an officer said.
Published – December 23, 2025 05:30 am IST
