Murugan and his wife Rajeswari, accused of committing the triple murder by their teenaged daughter on a television reality show, were picked up by the Villupuram police for initial enquiry.
The girl on Wednesday reiterated that her mother was aware of the killing of three persons – their family friend Sekhar, his daughter Lavanya, 22 and his son-in-law Silambarasan, 22 - four years ago for cash and gold that the deceased were carrying.
Highly placed police sources said the couple are being subjected to questioning by investigators after the police exhumed skeletons of three persons from the backyard of their house in Kuchipalayam on Tuesday.
The police believe that the skeletons dug out could be of Sekhar, Lavanya and Silambarasan.
“We need to do forensic tests and gather other evidence to confirm Murugan had killed the three as accused by his daughter, Bhargavi,” a senior police official said.
Bhargavi, 17, was in love with a 22-year-old youth and her parents were against her affair.
After completing her Plus-2 examination she sought help of the television channel, Zee Tamil. She was featured in the channel’s reality show where she accused her father of killing three persons.
“My mother was forcing me to stay away from my lover. She threatened me saying that father was very unhappy with me.
She also said he would not hesitate to commit murder as he had already killed three persons,” Bhargavi said.
The police had begun their probe after seeing the show on TV on May 28, while Sekhar’s wife also lodged a complaint with the local station about her missing family members.
She had the impression that her husband was living somewhere with their daughter and son-in-law for the past four years.