By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : Malaysian investigators are looking into marital discord, jealousy, money dispute and sex as the possible causes for murders of Indian origin citizens in two different cases.
One case also has a political angle and is about the killing last month of a youth leader of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), the party that speaks for the estimated 2.6 million population of Indian settlers.
An extramarital affair and a 1 million ringgit ($312,000 approx.) insurance payout are believed to be the motives for the murder of MIC’s Kota Raja youth branch chief S. Selvadhurai, the New Straits Times said Saturday.
Despite establishing this and obtaining confessions from the three suspects detained, however, police were hampered by lack of evidence.
Selvadhurai, 43, was allegedly strangled during a robbery in his wife’s office in shah Alam on April 28.
His wife, who was present, said he was first hit with an iron rod. The couple were running a general insurance agency.
Investigations revealed that Selvadhurai was insured for 1 million ringgit and that the murder could have been over the money.
Police initially picked up three suspects – a close relative, who is in her 30s, a teacher and another man. However the man and the teacher were later released.
Following this, police picked up two other men, one of them the woman’s boyfriend, the newspaper said.
The woman had been having an affair with the other suspect for some time, and she and the victim had been quarrelling over it, the police said.
Another case in Sepang, Selangor state, concerns the murder on Wednesday of A. Puspavathi, 38, a sales manager and a mother of two.
She was attacked as her car broke down on the highway.
The Star newspaper said Puspavathi had been separated from her husband for a year and had been dating a colleague.
She called this colleague on cell phone, complaining that she was being followed. Even as she spoke, the latter heard the car’s glasses crash. The first to reach the spot, he found the woman shot point blank in the head several times.
Police are working on the angle that jealousy may have been the motive for the shooting of Puspavathi.
Less than six hours later, a relative of the victim was detained to facilitate investigations. Police also seized a pistol and 10 bullets.
The 42-year-old suspect, who works as a security manager, has a licensed gun. Police have remanded him until Tuesday to assist investigations.
Puspavathi was found slumped in the driver’s seat. She had been shot in the right cheek, shoulder and left palm. Her valuables, handbag and mobile phone were still in the car.
Family and relatives of the victim, who claimed her body from the hospital, declined to comment.