Three days after the gruesome double murder on Coles Road, the city police arrested a 35-year-old electrician on charges on murdering the elderly couple in a bid to rob their valuables, on Tuesday.
The police said that on April 22, the accused Premchand Jain, a resident of K.G. Halli, along with his associate Chandrashekhar, stabbed 61-year-old Parvathraj and his wife ChandraKala (55) multiple times before slashing their wrists. After searching their house, the accused took away Rs. 50,000 in cash and gold valuables before locking the house and fleeing.
The murder came to light when neighbours, who noticed foul smell, informed the police.
During the course of investigation, the police found that someone had called Chandrakala on her mobile phone repeatedly, a few hours before the murder. They found the number belonged to Jain, who confessed to the murder, during interrogation.
According to the police, Jain was a handyman and employed to do odd jobs for the elderly couple from time to time. He told the police that after Chandrashekhar’s brother-in-law committed suicide in Delhi, he (Chamdrashekhar) was desperate for money.
The duo had approached many of their friends and later came to the couple, who were also running a small-time finance business. The couple asked them to pledge gold as collateral surety. Jain, who knew the couple’s background, hatched a plan to murder them and do away with cash and gold, police said. As per the plan, the duo had gone to the couple’s house on Thursday. But since a relative was visiting them, they could not execute the plan. Same was the case on Friday. The duo reportedly called Chandrakala to confirm if they were alone. Chandrakala reportedly told them to come with the gold at 5.30 p.m., after informing them the relative had left.
When the duo went to the couple’s house, Parvathraj took Jain to the terrace to fix the motor. Soon after, Chandrashekhar allegedly stabbed Chandrakala multiple times, removed her gold valuables, including six rings, gold chain and necklace. Parvathraj, who came down, was stabbed over 25 times. The duo even slashed the wrists of the victims to make sure they were dead and escaped with the valuables, said Satish Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Division), who added that duo even changed into Parvathraj’s clothes.
The police are on the lookout for Chandrashekhar, who is said to be absconding.
