Muscat, Mar 29 (Times of Oman): An Indian expatriate businessman was found dead near his house in Al Hail, yesterday evening. The victim has been identified as Vasudevan, 58, from the south Indian state of Kerala.

“His body was found near a tree some few meters away from his house. His hands and legs were tied and there were signs of struggle at the crime spot,” a relative of Vasudevan, who called the police after seeing the dead body,” told Times of Oman. Vasudevan was successfully running five building material shops in the Sultanate for the last two decades.

According to the victim’s relatives, Vasudevan left one of his shops late in the night with the collection money and a dinner parcel brought from a nearby restaurant on Monday.

“The last time we saw Vasudevan was on Monday night. As usual, he collected the money and left the shop. He didn’t come to the shop yesterday. Sometimes, he didn’t come to shop so we were not worried. But we got worried as his cellphone was switched off this time. Later in the afternoon, we went to his house to find out what has happened to him. When we went there we found his dead body lying near a tree near his house,” Vasudevan’s relative and one of his employees, said. “After seeing the body, we called our sponsor and the police,” the witnesses added.

Meanwhile, Vasudevan’s wife and three children arrived at the Muscat Airport to spend their holidays with him, without knowing about the tragedy. “The family reached nearly one hour after the body was found. We didn’t want them to know about the incident. So we sent our friends to the airport to tell them to return to India as their grandmother in India is not well. We also arranged flight tickets for them,” Vasudevan’s relatives said.

Mohan and Vijayan, the victim’s brothers, are also involved in business in Muscat. Vasudevan is survived by his wife Vimala, two daughters, Vinitha and Vijitha, and two sons, Vinod and Vipin.
According to witnesses, the money packet is missing and they suspect theft to be the reason behind the suspected murder.
Police have initiated a probe into the incident.

According to the relatives, the police were carrying out their probe with forensic department officials and sniffer dogs till the time this news report went to the press.