In a shocking piece of news, a functionary of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and his wife were brutally murdered and buried in Tamil Nadu's neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. The Tamil Nadu police have said that their bodies were recovered from a forest area at Puttur in the Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. The assailants had looted jewels and money from the residence of the deceased, kidnapped them, and killed them. 

According to reports, 68-year-old PMK functionary Sanjeevi Reddy and his wife were disappeared from their house in Tiruttani, Thiruvallur district, on July 29. Sanjeevi Reddy was running a private chit fund in Tiruttani. The issue of disappearance has come to the revelation after Reddy's granddaughter Lochi of Chittoor, who spoke to him after her mother's death on July 28, couldn't able to reach him the next day. 

When Lochi tried, Reddy's phone has kept ringing, and later, it was turned off. Dismayed by the development that her grandfather Reddy was not reachable, Lochi has called her another grandfather Balu to check Sanjeev Reddy's residence. Balu, a resident of Pattabiramapuram village near Tiruttani, has gone to Reddy's house only to find that the door was locked from outside. Balu and few residents had broken the door and went inside the house. 

They were shocked to see the cupboard and safe were damaged and found that the jewels and money have gone missing. After knowing the disappearance of the elderly couple and the looting at their residence, a complaint was filed with the Tiruttani police. Based on the complaint, the police had launched the probe and checked the mobile tower location of Reddy's phone and found that his mobile phone had been turned off near Mandala Samuthiram forest area in Puttur. 

With the tip-off, one police team had gone to the forest area while another team delved into Reddy's call details and found that 28-year-old Ranjith Kumar, son of Reddy's sister, had made a few calls before Reddy and his wife had gone missing. After tracing Ranjith Kumar, who is a resident of Tiruttani and runs a sweet stall near his house, the police detained him for an investigation into the matter. 

Initially, Ranjith Kumar had declined his involvement and after intense questioning, he had finally confessed that he has beaten Sanjeev Reddy and his wife to death to abduct their cash and gold. Based on his confessions, the police had also detained his friend Vimalraj and filed a case against the duo under the charges of murder. The police had then taken Ranjith Kumar and Vimalraj to Puttur to ascertain where they buried the bodies and to recover them. 

The bodies were recovered from the Mandala Samuthiram forest area and sent to a government hospital in Tirupati for conducting an autopsy. The police had planned to bring the two accused back to Tiruttani to recover the jewels they had looted. The police had on Monday said that the accused had looted at least 150 sovereigns of gold worth Rs 54 lakh and cash Rs 50 lakh from the safe in Reddy's residence. After recovering the gold and money, the police will lodge the accused in a prison.