'Murdered' tycoon's wife wants probe speeded up

By Stephanie Sta Maria

UPDATED KUALA LUMPUR: The second wife of “murdered” Indian tycoon A Muthuraja has returned to Malaysia to pressure both the police and government to hasten investigations into her husband's case.

S Usharani, 24, submitted a memorandum to the Indian High Commission today which included her initial report to the commission in March this year. She also pressed the high commission to push the police and government into taking swifter action.

The memorandum was received by the Second Secretary Consular, Subhash Ramakrishna Pillai.

Usharani will also be handing over new evidence to the Kuala Langat police either later today or tomorrow. The evidence comprises photographs and documents that she had shown to the team of Bukit Aman officers who interrogated her in Chennai last week.

The photographs include that of Muthuraja and former lawyer N Pathmanabhan, who was recently charged with the murder of cosmetics tycoon Sosilawati Lawiya and three others.

The documents relate to a land deal in Kuala Langat in which Muthuraja was involved with Pathmanabhan before his disappearance in January this year.

According to Kapar MP S Manikavasagam, who accompanied Usharani to the high commission, the police had instructed her to submit this evidence in Malaysia.

“Why couldn't they have taken it with them when they left Chennai?” he asked. “Now she has to come all the way to Malaysia for this.”

According to him, the document held proof that one of the lawyer brothers suspected in Sosilawati's murder, was indirectly involved in the land deal. However, he declined to elaborate, saying that he didn't know the details.

Police too slow

Manikavasagam also called on the police to issue an official statement on Muthuraja's status.

"They say he's dead but they have shown no evidence nor have they officially informed Usharani of this," he said. “The Inspector-General of Police (Ismail Omar) should at least release a statement on whether Muthuraja is dead or alive. Usharani can take it from there.”

Manikavasagam said last month that he would leave the case to Usharani's lawyers after Selangor chief police officer Khalid Abu Bakar warned him not to interfere in police investigations.

When reminded of this, he retorted, “The police are moving too slowly! Pathmanabhan has only been charged with Sosilawati's murder but there are other cases involving him. The police should be playing a role here, not the MPs. I am only here to help her.”

Manikavasagam also questioned why the link between Sementa assemblyman Abdul Rahman Palil and at least one of the suspects in Sosilawati's murder was being overlooked.

“Abdul Rahman was a director in the same company as one of the suspects,” he said. “And one Mohd Firdaus Palil is also listed as a director. Why are they not being investigated?”

This is Usharani's third trip to Malaysia following her husband's disappearance. She will be here until the end of the week.

Malaysia cops in city, quiz Usharani

CHENNAI: Officers of the Royal Malaysian Police arrived in the city on Wednesday to question Usha Rani, the second wife of millionaire movie financier A. Muthuraja who was allegedly murdered by two brothers in Malaysia few months ago. Lawyers Pathmanaban and Surendar have been charged with a string of murders, including those of self-made Malaysian cosmetics queen Sosilawati Lawiya and her associates.

Usha submitted several of her husband’s documents and papers to the Malaysian cops for verification after being summoned to the Malaysian deputy high commission in Nungambakkam on Thursday. “The inquiry went on for five hours. I handed over my husband’s laptop and some documents pertaining to land and business deals in which he and the lawyer brothers were involved,” Usha told this newspaper.

“They checked the system and the documents and returned them,” she added. Usha said she had also handed over two cellphones containing recordings of conversations she had with the lawyers to the Malaysian police. “I hope the evidence will help prove them guilty,” she added. Muthuraja, a resident of Ramapuram in Chennai, went missing after meeting two lawyer brothers in Malaysia on January 18. When Usha Rani contacted Surendar and Padmanaban, they told her that they were not aware of his whereabouts.

Usha Rani lodged a complaint with the Banting police and a probe revealed that the lawyers were involved in many other murders. The lawyers were arrested and on interrogation allegedly admitted that they had murdered Muthuraja after falling out with him over a business deal.

Reports against Banting murder suspects were over cheating: Hishammuddin

KUALA LUMPUR: All six police reports lodged against the two lawyer brothers linked to the disappearance of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya pertained to cheating offences and not murder, says Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

He said the reports, made between Aug 19, 2005 and Sept 14 this year, were all about land transactions and cheating.

"Can you imagine how many police reports are made on cheating every day? To relate them with a murder case of this nature is irresponsible," he told reporters during a press conference at the Parliament lobby here Monday.

Earlier in the Dewan Rakyat, the minister answered a question from Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) on the the date and nature of the police reports lodged against the brothers and reasons for police inaction.

Hishammuddin said he deliberately chose to address the issue in Parliament to clear up the matter.

He quashed claims that reports made against the suspects in the Sosilawati case were not investigated.

"There were no missing person reports linking the suspects before this. Only one report was lodged by the brother of Indian businessman A. Muthuraja on March 29 on the latter's disappearance but the facts of the case veered towards a cheating offence," he said.

Hishammuddin added that the suspect in the Muthuraja case was not the same as the main suspects in the Sosilawati's case.

When asked, in a supplementary question by Salahuddin Ayub (PAS - KubangKerian), how long it would take for the DNA report in the Sosilawati murder case to be ready, Hishammuddin said both the police and the Attorney-General's Chambers were trying to get the results as soon as possible.

Sosilawati, 47, and three others - lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, CIMB Bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, and driver Kamarudin Shansudin, 44, - went missing on Aug 30. Their remains were later found in Ladang Gadong, near Banting.

The disappearance of Muthuraja has also been linked to suspects in the murders of Sosilawati and the three others.

Malaysian lawyer brothers are big news in India

KLANG: Due to their link with missing Indian businessman A. Muthu­raja, the two lawyer brothers allegedly behind Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya’s murder have been making news in India.

Besides highlighting their friendship with Muthuraja, some papers have also speculated that they may be responsible for other murders in Malaysia.

The Hindustan Times had mentioned several unsolved murders such as that of lawyers R. Thinakaran Raman, 37, S.P. Annamalai, 59, Chew Sien Chee, 39, S. Pathmanathan, 29, and Triptipal Singh, 60. All the lawyers had been practising in Penang and were murdered between 1992 and 2009.

The article followed Penang police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Ayub Yaakob’s statement on Sept 14 that a special committee would take another look at unsolved cases of murdered lawyers in the state.

Based on the Penang cases, some Indian publications had gone to the extent of saying the brothers were on a killing spree since 1992.

This would make the elder brother just 23 and the younger sibling 20 years old at the time.

In another development, several family friends of the lawyer brothers said they were not as rich as they were made out to be by the media.

“The elder brother was not doing well and faced financial problems,” said a friend, adding that the family found it difficult to pay lawyers to represent them.

Police said they have picked up yet another suspect involved in extorting money from Muthuraja’s family, adding that his family had paid two groups about RM90,000 in total in exchange for his freedom.

Muthuraja was reported to have gone missing on Jan 18 after coming to Malaysia to meet the lawyer brothers.

Some parties had told Muthuraja’s family that he was detained for trafficking ketamine into the country and would be freed if payment of a stipulated amount was made.

'Lawyer brothers went on killing spree in India'

KUALA LUMPUR: In a shocking revelation, an Indian magazine claimed that the lawyer brothers arrested in connection with the brutal murder of millionaire Sosilawati Lawiya and three others here could also be responsible for several slayings in India.

According to the prominent weekly, Junior Vikatan, the brothers had allegedly gone on a killing spree since 1992.

Their alleged victims were three lawyers identified as Annamalai, Padmanathan and Dhnabatil Singh. The brothers were also blamed for the murder of reporter Thinakaran Raman.

Junior Vikatan also claimed that the lawyers' father was a “thug” who had moved to Malaysia some 60 years ago.

The brothers, the magazine said, owned a house in the Namakkal district in Tamil Nadu but preferred to stay with slained Indian businessman A Muthuraja whenever they visited India.

The brothers made headlines in the Indian media after reports claimed that they could have been responsible for the murder of Muthuraja, a prominent cinema financier, whose remains have yet to be discovered.

Sosilawati and the other three were allegedly killed at a farm belonging to the brothers in Banting, their bodies burnt and their remains strewn into a nearby river.

The police have yet to charge the brothers and six of their alleged men as rumours swirl about the lack of evidence, especially in establishing the DNA of the victims.

It is also said that the brothers could be linked to more than a dozen murders.

'Muthuraja wanted for murder'

Meanwhile, another Indian magazine alleged that Muthuraja himself was wanted for murder by the Indian police.

The Reporter magazine claimed that the well-heeled cinema financier was high on the wanted list for his involvement in robberies and smuggling activities.

Muthuraja, who hailed from the small village of Vilaagam in Tamil Nadu, was also said to be close to a man identified as Vengedesan, who was shot dead by the Indian police.

The businessman's father was a former police inspector and had stood in the 2006 Tamil Nadu state assembly election but was defeated.

Muthuraja, who was said to be involved in a prominent love scandal, surrended to the police after his father was arrested. However, he was later released on bail. The magazine did not say why Muthuraja's father was arrested.

He came to Malaysia last January, and went missing soon after.

Missing millionaire's case was initially of cheating, say cops

KUALA LUMPUR - The first report on missing Indian millionaire Allal Kathan Muthuraja was investigated as a cheating case, police said yesterday.

The report was lodged by Muthuraja's brother, Dr Kasi Viswanathan, at the Klang police station on March 29.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Hussin Ismail said the report stated that Bukit Aman was holding Muthuraja for allegedly trafficking in drugs and that a sum of money was needed to secure his release.

"Initially, the report was investigated as a cheating case," said Hussin, adding that they had tried to locate Muthuraja then, but he could not be found.

The investigations, however, took a twist following a second report which was lodged by Muthuraja's wife, S. Usharani, at the Kuala Langat district police headquarters on September 8.

Usharani had lodged a missing person's report and after digging further, police linked that report to the murders of Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and her three aides.

"So, to say that we did not act on those reports earlier is not true," Hussin said at a press conference in Bukit Aman yesterday.

Since the investigations intensified recently, police have arrested two men who are believed to have extorted money from Muthuraja's family in Chennai, India.

The two men were picked up from their homes in Taman Wilayah, Selayang and Kampung Laksamana, Batu Caves, in the past 10 days.

The two had allegedly impersonated police officers from Bukit Aman to demand RM1 million (S$426,386) from Usharani to secure the release of her husband.

Usharani had told police that she received two calls, one from a caller claiming to be "ASP (assistant superintendent) Suresh" and the other who identified himself as "Inspector Muru".

Muthuraja, 37, was reported missing in January after coming here to meet two lawyer brothers who are now being investigated for eight murders and several fraud cases involving the sale and purchase of several parcels of land.

Hussin urged Muthuraja's family to remain calm and give police time to conduct their investigations.

Police had earlier said that they suspected Muthuraja could have been murdered but were awaiting DNA results to confirm this.

Hussin also urged the family not to listen to speculation on Muthuraja's disappearance but to only liaise with the police.

"We have appointed an officer to deal directly with the family," he said.

Apart from Usharani, Muthuraja's brothers - Kasi and Vijay Subramaniam - are also here to assist police in the investigations.

Yesterday, Usharani, Kasi and Vijay had their statements recorded separately at the Kuala Langat district police headquarters.

Usharani is at loggerheads with her brothers-in-law, claiming that they had threatened her to stop digging into Muthuraja's case and to return to India.

The woman, however, is adamant to stay on to see the case through.

The investigations into the Banting murders, which have taken almost a month, has caught the attention of major media organisations in India as well.

To date, police have arrested the two lawyer brothers from Banting, and six of their employees, all believed to be locals.

Police investigations so far have revealed that at least four victims - Sosilawati, her driver Kamarudin Shansudin, CIMB Bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad and lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim - were murdered at a poultry farm in Ladang Gadung, which belonged to the lawyer brothers.

The victims were said to have been beaten, stabbed and burnt before their remains were scattered in nearby rivers and streams.

Investigations into the four murders opened a can of worms when it was discovered that there could have been more victims.

Apart from Muthuraja, police have also began investigations into two other missing persons.

The two have been identified as electrical technician Shafik Abdullah of Sungai Petani, and businessman Thevaraj Shanmugam of Taiping. The two have been reported missing in April.

Another victim, housewife T. Selvi, who was murdered outside her home in Banting last year, could also have been a victim of the men currently under investigations.

Apart from Selvi, the bodies of the seven other victims have not been found.

Police have only found bone fragments in the rivers, which have been sent for DNA profiling to ascertain the identities.

Banting Murders: Police To Dig Two New Burial Sites At Farm

KUALA LANGAT, Sept 25 (Bernama) -- Police Saturday brought in a bulldozer into Ladang Gadong, Banting, to carry out digging works at two new burial sites at the farm where the Banting murders were alleged to have taken place. It is learnt that one of the sites was located within the farm belonging to one of the suspects, while the other was located outside. Police obtained leads to the location of the two sites after the four suspects in the Banting murders were brought to the farm about 4pm, and about half-an-hour later, a bulldozer was seen entering the area. However, digging works at the two sites would only be done tomorrow as all police vehicles, including a van carrying the suspects, left the area about 6.45pm. Sosilawati, 47, her driver Kamarudin Shansudin, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim and CIMB bank officer Norhisham Mohammad went missing on Aug 30 after going to Banting for a land purchase deal.

Police found out that they had been killed, their bodies burnt and the ashes thrown into rivers in the vicinity of Sungai Gadong, Tanjung Sepat, near Banting, Selangor. One of the suspects in the case was also linked to the disappearance of several individuals, including a businessman from India, Allal Kanthan Muthuraja, 34, and a contractot from Kedah, Shafik Abdullah, 37, and his friend. Allal was reported missing after arriving in Malaysia last Jan 18, while Shafik and his friend were reported missing five months ago. They went missing allegedly after meeting the suspect. -- BERNAMA

Three Main Suspects In Banting Murder Re-arrested

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 25 (Bernama) -- Three main suspects, including two lawyer brothers, in the murder of cosmetic queen Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others, have been re-arrested for investigation into the murder of a businessman from India.

Bukit Aman Crime Investigation Department deputy director, Datuk Hadi Ho Abdullah, said police would apply for an order to remand them Sunday.

The disappearance of the Indian businessman, Allal Kathan Muthuraja, was linked to the suspects in the murders of Sosilawati and the three men, when he went missing after allegedly picked up by the two lawyer brothers at the KL International Airport on arrival in Malaysia last Jan 18.

Last Wednesday,, police confirmed that Muthuraja, who was reported missing early this year, had been murdered.

Muthuraja's wife, S Usharani lodged a report at the Bating police station last Sept 8 on her husband's disappearance. Yesterday, she was at the Kuala Langat police station to give her statement.

The three suspects had been in remand since Sept 12 to assist police investigations into the brutal murder of Sosilawati, 47, her driver Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, CIMB bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, and lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abd Karim, 32, who were reported missing on Aug 30 after they went to Banting for a land purchase deal.

Police found out that they had been killed, their bodies burnt and the ashes thrown into rivers in the vicinity of Sungai Gadong, Tanjung Sepat, near Banting, Selangor.

-- BERNAMA

Muthuraja ‘movie plot’ unravels

THIRUNELVELI: The case of missing Indian businessman A. Muthuraja is playing like a drama - with the mystery of his disappearance, a search that spans two nations and a very nasty family feud.

His mother A. Ramalakshmi has made it known that her son was not on good terms with his wife S. Usharani.

She claimed her son wanted to “escape” from Usharani because she was always putting him under pressure.

“They quarrelled all the time and Usharani had threatened to commit suicide,” she added.

“He has asked me many times to take care of his three-year-old daughter Lakshmi Shree so he could walk away from the destructive relationship,” she said at her ancestral home in Thenkasi near here.

According to Ramalakshmi, Muthuraja spent most of his time in his estate in Mekarai, about 20km from Thenkasi.

She added that Muthuraja had built a house on the estate, which also had a waterfall and spent a lot of time there with his family and friends.

Muthuraja’s family members said his relationship with Usharani was a “mistake” after he became estranged from his first wife S. Ramalakshmi.

They claimed Usharani was a widow with one child when she met Muthuraja.

Muthuraja’s younger brother Dr Kasi Viswanathan said Usharani got married when she was only 15. Her wealthy husband later died and left her his assets.

Sources in Chennai said Muthuraja and Usharani had moved into an apartment only a day before he left for Malaysia on Jan 18.

“Judging from the amount of clothing he had packed, it looked like he was leaving,” the source said.

Oh brother! Usharani’s version is now disputed

CHENNAI: Dr Kasi Viswanathan has disputed his older brother A. Muthuraja's wife’s version of events surrounding her husband's disappearance.

He said yesterday that his family was concerned that Muthuraja’s wife S. Usharani was giving the authorities the wrong information.

“The passport that she’s showing the police and the media has expired. There were four expired passports attached to his current one.

“The current passport is missing and it must have been with him when he disappeared,” said Dr Kasi, who will arrive in Malaysia today to speak to the authorities.

He had lodged a missing person’s report about Muthuraja in March at the Klang district police station.

He said Usharani’s allegations that Muthuraja’s luggage had been given to him by one of the lawyer brothers was also untrue.

“I knew my brother liked to stay in Bukit Bintang due to the good choice of hotels there.

“I went to 11 hotels before finally locating my brother’s luggage when I was there in March,” he said.

He said Usharani was creating a ruckus because she was worried about herself now that Muthuraja was missing and wanted to establish her status as his wife.

“She has no legal link to him and even in his passport it’s stated that Ramalakshmi is his spouse. Her only trump card now is the child she had with my brother,” he said.

He said Usharani was also unable to bring her daughter to Malaysia because the child carried Muthuraja’s name.

“Since Usharani has no legal link with my brother, she cannot take his underage child out of the country. But Ramalakshmi is his legal wife and can travel with the child,” he said.

He also alleged that an Indian businessman based in Chennai was the one behind Usharani’s current actions.

“This businessman, who is instigating her obtained about RM40,000 from me for information about my brother and he put me in touch with a man called Elil to whom we paid another RM80,000,” he said.

It is believed that the Indian businessman is also a longtime friend of a PKR member who had put Usharani in touch with Kapar MP S. Manikavasagam.

Wife Of Missing Indian Businessman Reveals Recorded Phone Conversations

KLANG, Sept 23 (Bernama) -- S. Usharani, 27, the wife of an Indian millionaire businessman who has gone missing in Malaysia, on Thursday revealed to the media a recorded telephone conversation she has had with a lawyer who is a suspect in the co-called Banting murders.

Usharani played the two-minute telephone conversation recorded on her mobile telephone at a news conference held at the office of Kapar Member of Parliament S. Manikavasagam in Kapar near here.

The conversation, in Tamil and explained to reporters by lawyer Y. Murugan, was about Usharani's enquiries about the whereabouts of her husband, Allal Kanthan Muthuraja, 35.

Usharani said that during the conversation on Jan 28, the suspect claimed that he was in Thailand and would only be able to relate the whereabouts of her husband once he got back from there.

Reporters also listened to another recording, this time between Usharani and a man who claimed to be one ASP Suresh from the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters.

"ASP Suresh demanded RM1 million to free my husband because he claimed he (my husband) had been arrested for smuggling ketamine into the country," she said.

Usharani, who had flown in from Chennai, India, Wednesday, also said she had received a similar telephone call from a man who claimed to be one Inspector Muru from Bukit Aman.

Meanwhile, Manikavasagam said Usharani would hand over the recording to Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar on Friday, at about 11.30am.

The Banting murders refer to the deaths of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya, 47, her driver Kamaruddin Shamsudin, 44, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, and CIMB Bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, who went missing on Aug 30 after they went to Banting, Selangor, over a land deal.

Police found out that the four had been killed, their bodies burnt and the ashes thrown into rivers in the vicinity of Ladang Gadong near Banting, and picked up eight suspects, two of them lawyers, to facilitate investigations.

Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said Wednesday the police had upgraded the investigation into Muthuraja's case from missing person to murder based on indicators and evidence gathered so far.

Usharani had lodged a report at the Banting police station on Sept 8 that Muthuraja went missing after he had arrived in Malaysia on Jan 18.

She also went to the Kuala Langat district police headquarters Thursday to give a statement.

-- BERNAMA

Horror in Malaysia, questions in chennai

Sept. 22: Malaysia’s deadliest crime story in recent times has a Chennai link. Allal Kathan Muthuraja was a film financier living with his pretty wife Usha Rani and three-year-old daughter Lakshmi Shri at Ramapuram close to where a good many of Kollywood personalities live. It’s a rented house and that’s just one little aspect amid the many strange things popping off the cupboard of the 37-year-old handsome man hailing from Shengottai in Tirunelveli district.

While the wife claims that Muthuraja has been a film financier, not many in the film industry seem to know the man. A more serious question arising out of the Muthuraja case is why did Usha Rani keep mum all this time though the husband disappeared after leaving for Malaysia in January on being called by his long-time friends and business associates Surendar and Padmanabhan, lawyer-brothers living in Selangor in that country?

Why did she have to wait till the two Malaysians were arrested by the police there, suspected of murdering over 15 persons? Until their arrest, the brothers were enjoying great respect among the locals but things changed quickly for them when they allegedly killed businesswoman Sosilawati Lawiya and her three associates. These victims had gone missing on August 30 after visiting the brothers’ farmhouse to discuss a property deal.

Sources say that Usha Rani had been in touch with the brothers from January. However, she has claimed in her many media interviews — local Tamil news channels fed gregariously on the story of ‘millionaire’ Muthuraja missing in Malaysia — that she was knocking on all doors in Malaysia to get information about her missing husband.

She had contacted the Indian high commission in Malaysia, complained to the Interpol and the Malaysian police, but none helped. In the same breath, she also claimed that Surendar and Padmabhan avoided her calls. It's big mystery why the wife did not press her case strongly with the Malaysian police by telling them that Muthuraja went missing only after his trip to meet the brothers?

Usha Rani claimed that she paid `5 lakh to a man called Suresh, who claimed he was from the Malaysian police and demanded a bribe of `10 lakh to let her speak to her husband, who was in his custody for carrying two kilos of Ketamine. He was then in a car with a few blacks outside the Beach Club Hotel, Suresh told her. She had arranged the part-payment of `5 lakh through a ‘friend’ in Malaysia. She would not name that friend. In any case, there was no phone talk and she was not sure whether Suresh was really a cop and her husband was anywhere around there.

Now, Muthuraja has a brother Kasi Viswanathan working in Russia and he decided to go to Malaysia looking for him in May. The lawyer-brothers went along with him to the police to lodge a complaint about Muthuraja missing but they withdrew that complaint after Kasi left the place.

Strangely, the brothers handed over Muthuraja’s suitcase to Kasi, saying that the man had left it in the hotel while telling them he was going out and would soon be back. He never returned, Kasi was told.

He brought the suitcase to Chennai and handed it over Usha before returning to Russia. When Usha Rani obliged the TV cameras for visuals of the contents of the suitcase delivered to her at the Chennai home, there were several sets of brand new dresses. But then, didn’t she tell the media earlier that Muthuraja had gone to meet the lawyer-brothers on a one-day trip?

On Tuesday, she took the flight to Malaysia to continue her search for the husband, leaving the little daughter in the care of a maidservant she picked up just the previous day through ‘Just Dial’.

Malaysian media reported that she visited the lawyers' farmhouse along with a friend S. Manikavasagam, a local MP and later they also met some senior police officials.

The media also quoted the MP saying that he would not want to disclose where his Chennai guest lived because he feared for her safety. But that was before the Malaysian police announced, on Wednesday, that Muthuraja’s case was no more that of a man missing but one of murder.

The suspense of the missing Muthuraja might have ended but the mystery behind the murder remains buried deep, may not be necessarily in that farm stream.

Polis sahkan ahli perniagaan India yang hilang dibunuh

KUALA LUMPUR 22 Sept. – Polis hari ini mengesahkan ahli perniagaan warga India, Allal Kathan Muthuraja yang dilapor hilang sejak awal tahun ini telah dibunuh.

Ketua Polis Selangor, Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar berkata, polis kini menyiasat kes kehilangan lelaki berusia 34 tahun yang tiba di Malaysia pada 18 Januari lepas itu sebagai kes bunuh mengikut Seksyen 302 Kanun Keseksaan.

"Saya sahkan mangsa dibunuh hasil daripada petunjuk dan keterangan-keterangan yang telah dikumpul.

“Berdasarkan dari itu kita telah “upgrade” kertas siasatan daripada orang hilang kepada kes bunuh,” katanya ketika dihubungi di sini hari ini.

Beliau berkata demikian ketika ditanya mengenai perkembangan kes kehilangan ahli perniagaan hartanah, restoran dan barang kemas dari Chennai, India itu.

Kehilangan ahli perniagaan itu dikaitkan dengan suspek kes pembunuhan jutawan kosmetik Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya dan tiga yang lain apabila dia dilapor hilang selepas dijemput oleh kedua-dua peguam, yang juga merupakan suspek utama kes pembunuhan Sosilawati, di Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur sebaik tiba di Malaysia 18 Januari lepas.

Isteri ahli perniagaan itu, S. Usharani, 24, membuat laporan polis berhubung kehilangan suaminya di Balai Polis Banting pada 8 September lepas.

Hari ini, Usharani menemui polis di Banting berhubung kes kehilangan suaminya itu. – Bernama

DNA samples from Indian millionaire’s family needed

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police are seeking Interpol’s assistance in the case of the missing multi-millionaire Indian businessman who was allegedly last seen with the two lawyer brothers being held over the murder of Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others.

It is learnt that police here have asked their Indian counterpart to help obtain DNA samples from the family members of A. Muthu­raja.

They said that police here needed the samples following the discovery of hundreds of bone fragments in the Sungai Panchau riverbed in Banting.

“Police in Malaysia are not sure if the businessman is dead or alive and the DNA samples are needed to assist in investigations,” a source said.

The source also said that it would take a few days for the DNA samples to be sent to Malaysia.

The businessman was in Malaysia in January and was said to have met with the two lawyer brothers.

He was said to have contacted his wife upon arrival and told her that he was met by the lawyer brothers at the airport here.

She said she failed to contact her husband several days later and became worried and lodged a report with the Indian High Commission here.

Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar, meanwhile, has confirmed an arrest of a 34-year-old Malaysian man in connection with the missing Indian national.

In another development, the DAP has lodged a police report against Perkasa member and former PKR Youth vice-chairman Zahid Md Arip and a Malay daily over a report that a prime suspect in the murder of Sosilawati was a DAP life member.

Penang DAP Socialist Youth secretary Ng Wei Aik lodged the report at the Patani Road police station in Penang with several party members at 11.30am yesterday.

“We want Zahid to apologise within 24 hours or face legal action. This is a blatant lie,” he said