Virudhunagar district police on Wednesday nabbed the second accused, D. Muniyasamy, 40, in the Devadanam temple double murder case reported on November 10.
The police said that a special team had arrested him near Rajapalayam railway station and reportedly recovered from him a knife, cell phone, besides 12.8 grams of gold and 79.9 grams of silver and ₹5,200 cash.
According to police, Muniyasamy had been released on bail from the jail only three days before the double murder.
His accomplice, Nagaraj, had also been put behind the bar in connection with a cellphone robbery case.
The police said that the duo, who are relatives, had conspired to loot the hundial and valuables from Nachadai Thavirtharuliya Swamy Temple.
“Since, both the security personnel, Petchimuthu, 54, and Sankarapandian, 69, deployed on night duty were from their own village, they had planned to murder them and break the closed circuit television cameras to avoid being identified by the police after robbery,” a police officer said.
They had carried weapons with them before scaling the compound wall on the night of November 10.
Though they had damaged the cameras and had taken away with them the hard disc of the CCTV network, they had failed to notice another CCTV camera that was working on the temple premises, the police said.
The police had already arrested the other accused, Nagaraj, 25, the very next day. Seithur Inspector of Police had to open fire on him when he attacked a Sub-Inspector of Police with a machete when he was taken to a secluded spot where he had hidden the weapon used for the double murder.
Published – November 20, 2025 08:07 pm IST
