Salem: The police on Saturday arrested three persons, including a plus-two student, for murdering a fruit shop owner in broad daylight on Friday in Namakkal district. Police are now on the lookout for the main accused Veera alias Veerakumar, who executed the murder through these three persons.

The three men — Kasi alias Kasirajan, 27 from Masikangani street in Namakkal, Ramu alias Ramachandran, 29 from Johnsonpet in Salem and Sathish Kumar, 17, a plus-two student from Kosavampatti in Namakkal — murdered Subburaj alias Subramani, 42, who owns a couple of fruit shops in Namakkal, by slitting his throat.

Police said Subburaj was returning home from Uzhavar Sandhai on the Fort road, when the accused persons wearing helmets waylaid him in the morning. While two persons held him, the other slit his throat in full public view in a crowded place.

As the culprits fled, the shell shocked public managed to take Subburaj in an ambulance to GH, but the doctors declared him as brought dead. Police investigations revealed that Subburaj, a native of Dindigul district who has settled in Namakkal for the last ten years, had a dispute with his wife recently over her illicit affair with the main culprit in the case, Veera alias Veerakumar, who masterminded the murder.

“Veerakumar found Subburaj a hindrance to his affair with Rani and approached his friend Kasirajan, a Goondas Act detainee, who has been already booked for two murders, to execute the task. His minor accomplice Sathish Kumar is studying plus-two at government HSS in Erumapatty,” the police said. Further investigations are on and police are now hunting for Veerakumar who is still on the run.