Singapore is known as one of the safest cities in the entire world, but even we have our own fair share of crimes and gruesome deeds. And one such crime was committed back in 1984, aptly known as the “curry murder”.
The victim was Ayakanno Marimuthu, a caretaker at the PUB holidays in Changi chalet. In 1987, a police informant told Detective G. Alagamalai about a murder that took place 3 years back. He informed him that the man was murdered, chopped up and cooked in curry. Initially skeptical and disgusted, the detective nonetheless brought the information up to his superiors and was charged to investigate the claims.
He managed to trace the trial back to a missing-persons report filed by Ayakanno Marimuthu’s wife, Nagaratha Vally Ramiah, on 18 December 1984 at Joo Chiat police station. With the claims substantiated by a missing-persons report, he decided to investigate further.
Over the course of two months, he spoke to over 30 people and started putting together the pieces of this bizarre, not to mention gruesome case.
On 23 March 1987, CID conducted an operation that started at 2am and rounded up 8 suspects – Nagaratha Vally Ramiah, his mother-in-law Kamachi Krishnasamy, Ramiah’s three brothers Rathakrishnana Ramayah, Shanmugam Chandra and Balakrishna Ramiah and their wives.
It was found out that on 12 December 1984, Marimuthu was brought to the caretaker’s quarters of the Presbyterian Church by the three brothers. They bludgeoned him to death with an iron rod and chopped his body into pieces, throwing the flesh into a pot with chili powder, spices and rice to cook. The bones were disposed of at various roadside bins in black plastic bags.
Ramiah along with her three brothers, Balakrishna, Ramayah and Chandra, were charged with murder. Her mother Krishnasamy and sister-in-law Manuee were charged with abetting the crime. The six suspects were brought to court on 6 June 1987.
The case was dismissed due to a lack of evidence and all six suspects were given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal. Balakrishna, Ramayah and Chandra were detained at Changi Prison from 22 June 1987 to 21 June 1991, where their legal challenge to their detainment was successful and they were released unconditionally.
Ayakanno Marimuthu was described as a bad-tempered man who was often drunk and violent, and is physically abusive towards his wife, Ramiah.
This remains as one of the more bizarre unsolved cases that took place in Singapore thus far.
