Four burglars from Tamil Nadu were arrested by Town South Police on Wednesday on charges of murdering a security guard and breaking into a house in the city.
Sabhapathy, 28, was the leader of the group, which included Arumugham, 26, Sekharan, 27 and Selvam, 23. The four belong to Kadalur in Tamil Nadu. The police are on the look out for one more person in the case.
Bose, 70, was posted as a security guard at the house of Supreme Court advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan at Sankar Nagar in Maradu. He was found tied-up and suffocated to death on the night of October 29. Wife and grandson of Bose found him dead after they came looking for him the next day. The burglars broke into the house and stole money and gold ornaments.
Panangad police registered a case and special team was formed under Bijo Alexander, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Thrikkakara.
During investigation, it was found that Sabhapathy was earlier convicted for breaking into the same house in May 2010 and stealing 12 sovereigns of gold and money. He was released from prison in May 2011.
This information came up when the special team looked for similar cases and crimes. The team under G. Venu, Circle Inspector, Town South and consisting of Vibin, sub-inspector, Panangad and V. Gopakumar, sub-inspector, Town South, camped in Tamil Nadu for days to check whether Sabhapathy and Rajasekharan, accused in the earlier case, had any role in this crime. Arrests were made on the basis of probe done there.
Interrogation of the accused revealed that all the five of them started from Tamil Nadu by train on October 28 and reached the city by noon next day. They took a bus to reach Vyttila and Sabhapathy led the group to the show them the target house. Then the group returned to Vyttila to have liquor. By 8.30 p.m., they reached Kannadikadu and waited at an uninhabited house in the neighbourhood. They reached Mr. Vaidyanathan’s house past midnight, but were not expecting Bose there. So they had to murder him before breaking into the house.
During interrogation, the accused confessed to having identified another house too in the neighbourhood, in case nothing was found at Mr. Vaidyanathan’s house. Even though a bank employee who stayed next door heard the noise of the accused breaking down the door, he did not alert others or police.
After returning to Tamil Nadu, Sabhapathy staged an assault on his relative and created a commotion by exploding country bomb in public to get himself arrested by Tamil Nadu Police. The investigating team suspected that this was part of an attempt to evade arrest in the murder case.
Sabhapathy has cases for stealing motorcycles pending against him at Thrissinappally, Kadampuzhiyoor and Pandurutty in Tamil Nadu, cases for committing burglary at jewelleries in Tirunelveli, Pondicherry and Madura and for house break-ins in Thrissur and Panangad.
Sabhapathy’s brother is in judicial custody at Thiruvananthapuram district jail for murdering a security man at a jewellery shop at Kallara in Thiruvananthapuram rural, dumping his body in a well and breaking into the jewellery to steal 1.5 kg of gold.
