SALEM: In what seems to the police as an act of intimidation and threat to their investigations, the house at Dasanaickenpatti where the sensational six of a family, headed by retired police inspector Kuppuraj, were murdered on August 11, 2010, was set on fire on Sunday.The incident turned significant as the murder case is one of the important land grab cases in which DMK men including Suresh Kumar, nephew of Veerapandi S Arumugam, are implicated and has happened at a time when the land grab cases are being hotly pursued by the police.The house with a tiled portion in the front and a terraced portion in the back is located in the midst of a farm land of six acres.It remains locked ever since the gruesome murder took place because the legal heirs of the property are to be established in the court as most of the heirs have died and others are in jail.It was the property-related dispute among family members which gave room for land sharks with political background to attempt to usurp the property.Fire emanated from one of the rooms in the terraced portion of the house on Sunday about 3.30 pm.Y Suresh Kumar, inspector of Kondalampatti police station, said the room was where the slain retired inspector Kuppuraj lay dead.The fire had gutted old furniture, bed, refrigerator and the TV. The extent of damage could not be ascertained.About 25 sq ft of the tiled portion was also gutted including some wooden articles, said a Special Branch Police who was at the site.Although sabotage is not ruled out as of now, no clue could be found as yet, said the police.Electrical short circuit is ruled out because the electrical supply was disconnected 19 months ago.Highly-placed sources in the CB-CID which investigated the six of a family murder case said that the fire incident has no implication for their investigation because before the chargesheet was filed in the court all incriminating documents and evidence had been recovered from the house.However, it appears that the act of setting the house on fire was an indirect threat when the case is nearing trial. “We have told the District Police to investigate the matter thoroughly, said the CB-CID source.This is the second sabotage attempt on the house.On February 10, miscreants attempted to set fire to it.Kuppuraj’s lone surviving daughter Vijayalakshmi, who joined the AIADMK before the Assembly elections,told reporters that the incident was a sabotage but the police were trying to downplay it by saying it could be a stray fire from a cigarette butt thrown by some passersby.
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