NAGERCOIL: Two Malayalees who were returning after selling land in Ooty were found dead under mysterious circumstances near Kalkuvari in the Nallampally forest area of ​​Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. The preliminary conclusion by the police is that the two were murdered. The deceased have been identified as Thiruvananthapuram Kunnukuzhy native Neville G. Cruz (57) and Ernakulam Varappuzha native Sivakumar Pai (50).

The bodies with severe injuries were found on the road connecting the Dharmapuri-Salem districts. The dead bodies were found by those who went to graze their cattle through the forest.

The bodies were found 10 meters apart. A Kerala registration car was also found 100 meters away. The two were identified as Keralites after checking the identity cards found in the car.

Relatives said that Neville, who was an engineer in Thiruvananthapuram, went to Ooty four days ago with his friends. There were four people in Neville's group. The relatives also said that they do not know about the other two persons or about the deceased Sivakumar. Neville and his friends had bought land in Ooty years ago.

Sivakumar's father Vishwanatha Pai was a retired engineer at FACT and the owner of Varapuzha Durga Theatre. The travel agency run by Sivakumar also had a number of buses. However, he was suffering from a severe financial crisis in the last few years.