Trouble mounts for DMK MP Ramesh of Cuddalore as the Crime Branch - Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) of Tamil Nadu had taken him under its custody for a day in connection to a murder case in which the parliamentarian was an accused.

Ramesh has been serving as the Lok Sabha MP, representing the Cuddalore constituency and on Wednesday, Cuddalore Chief Judicial Magistrate Prabakar had awarded Ramesh with one-day custody under the CBCID to question him in the case. A murder case was recently filed against Ramesh for allegedly murdering a worker of his cashew nut processing unit in Panruti in the Cuddalore district. 

Ramesh was initially sent to two days of judicial custody and he was produced before the Magistrate on Wednesday. During the hearing in the court, the probing team has sought the court's directive to take the MP under custody for two more days for further investigation. However, the Magistrate has granted one-day custody till Thursday and the court has also permitted the MP's counsel to visit him during his custody after obtaining consent. 

Besides Ramesh, five others, who were working in his cashew nut unit, were booked for assaulting 55-year-old labourer Govindarasu and beating him to death. Govindarasu had been working in Ramesh's cashew nut unit for eight years and he was a native of Melmampattu, Cuddalore. On September 19, Govindarasu had gone to the factory and didn't come back home. When his family was searching for his whereabouts, the close associate of the DMK MP had informed Govindaraj's son that his father has died. When Govindaraj's son shocked to hear the news, he was told by the associate that his father's mortal remains were kept at the Mundiyampakkam government hospital in Villupuram.
 
Govindaraj's son had rushed to the hospital and he developed suspicion over his father's death as he found several marks of injuries on his father's body. Suspecting that his father would have been killed in the factory, he and his relatives sieged the Kadampuliyur police station and demanded the law enforcement agency to file a murder case against the DMK MP as the relatives alleged that he could have played a role in the death of Govindaraj. 

The relatives had approached the Madras High Court with a petition of seeking the CBI probe into the death. After hearing the matter, the High Court has ordered to shift the body from Mundiyampakkam government hospital to JIPMER in Puducherry and to conduct an autopsy. The Tamil Nadu government had transferred the probe to the CBCID and the crime department had launched its investigation into the matter.

The autopsy report has confirmed that Govindarasu was beaten to death and as per the report, the CBCID had filed a murder case against DMK MP Ramesh. The CBCID officials had filed the charge sheet on September 24 and they had arrested five other accused - Nataraj, Pichai, Vinoth, Sundar, and Kandhavel, involved in the crime. However, the DMK MP was absconding and the probing officials had sought Lok Sabha Secretary's consent to arrest the MP. Days after being at large, Ramesh had on Monday -October 11, surrendered before a court in Panruti. 

 According to reports, the police had said that on September 19, Govindarasu was stopped when he was returning home from work and Ramesh had questioned him about a theft that took place at the cashew unit and five men, who were now arrested, and Ramesh had reportedly started beating Govindarasu. After surrendering, Ramesh said that with the view of curbing further false accusations against his party's leader, he would get surrendered in the court in connection to the charges filed against him. He further claimed he will prove in court that the accusations lack evidence.