Murder of gem dealer: five arrested

The accused hail from Kannur and Kozhikode

January 06, 2013 02:10 am | Updated November 16, 2021 10:38 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram:

Five persons arrested on charge of murdering Hari Hara Varma, a gem dealer, being brought to the Police Commissionerate in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.  Photo:C.Ratheesh Kumar

Five persons arrested on charge of murdering Hari Hara Varma, a gem dealer, being brought to the Police Commissionerate in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. Photo:C.Ratheesh Kumar

The police on Saturday arrested five men in connection with the murder of gem dealer and self-styled “royal” Hari Hara Varma, 68, here on December 24.

They identified the accused as M. Jithesh, 33; V. Ajeesh, 27; Rakhil, 24; Jitesh’s cousin, Rakesh, 21; and J. Joseph, 20. They hail from lower middle class families in Kannur and Kozhikode districts and were part of a fraternity of Malayali students in Bangalore. Joseph is the son of a planter in Karnataka. All are first offenders with no previous police record.

Investigators said that Jitesh, who was occasionally Varma’s middleman in “shadowy” deals involving the transaction of antiques and jewels of questionable value, had plotted the crime to make quick money.

They said that Jitesh had, of late, become sceptical of Varma’s claim that the “gems” in his possession were family heirlooms. Jitesh suspected the stones were stolen and reckoned that Varma would not approach the police if he could steal them himself. (The police would subsequently recover the stones from the suspects and find them to be of scarce value).

Varma insisted that buyers approaching him prove their solvency, as a rich collector did in November, by paying a non-refundable cash advance of not less than Rs.50,000 just for viewing the “gems.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.