The Varthur police have solved the murder case of a 65-year-old woman and arrested four persons from Tamil Nadu, who allegedly strangled her to death and took away gold jewellery worth Rs. 10 lakh on February 10.
Varthur Police Inspector D. Kumar said that the prime accused J. Setu is a native of Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu. The other accused are Prabhu (23), Nanda Kumar (21) and Ajith Kumar (20).
The police said Setu was visiting his relative Vijay Kumar, who was working as a labourer at a site adjacent to the deceased Manjulamma's house in Subbaiah Garden, here in the city.
Manjulamma lived with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. She would be alone at home after her son and daughter-in-law left for work and her granddaughter went to college.
The police said that Setu was in deep debt. He went back to Dharmapuri and hatched a plan with his associates to kill Manjulamma and rob her valuables.
As per the plan, the trio returned to the city and stayed in a different place and kept a watch over the house for two days, police said. They said that the accused stuffed Manjulamma's mouth with a piece of cloth, tied her up and strangled her to death.
To mislead the police, the accused even left behind a visiting card of a person from Madhya Pradesh. The police, who went in search of the suspects to Madhya Pradesh, returned after confirming that he was not involved.
However, during the course of investigations, the police found that Setu had visited Vijay Kumar a few days before the murder and began to check his background. After keeping a close watch on Setu, the police picked him up. They found that though he was earlier in debt, he was suddenly on a spending spree.
“A detailed questioning led him not only to confess the crime but also reveal the names of his associates,” Mr. Kumar said, and added that the police were now trying to recover the valuables that were pawned off in different places.
