A city police team on Monday cracked Thursday’s double murder of a mother and daughter in Maduravoyal. Two youths, who were family friends of the victims, slit their throats and stole gold jewellery in order to settle their mounting debts.
The victims Vimala Devi (47) and her daughter Pavithra (22), an employee of a BPO in Kilpauk, was found lying in a pool of blood in their house on Nagendran Street in Karthikeyan Nagar by Devi’s husband Samikannu. Gold jewellery was missing from the victims’ bodies and the young woman’s handbag containing her wallet, mobile phone and some money was missing.
Eight special teams led by S. Xavier Dhanaraj, Deputy Commissioner (Anna Nagar) carried out a thorough probe.
The first clue was provided by Vimala Devi’s son Sukumaran. A police team had gone to Sivagangai district where he, his father Samikannu and relatives were performing the last rites for the victims. “We were sure that the killers were known to the family as there were no signs of break-in at the house. There were also clear indications that the perpetrators had been greeted with coffee. Sukumaran told us about a few friends of his who frequented his house, one of whom was the suspect Ramesh,” said Mr. Dhanaraj.
S. Ramesh (24) of MMDA Colony, Arumbakkkam and his friend Satish Kumar (24) of Madha Koil Street, Nolambur, were part of Sukumaran’s friends circle and all of them often played cricket together in the locality. Ramesh ran a chicken shop in Nolambur till 2011 and became a taxi driver after he purchased two vehicles. He contracted out his vehicles to a local call taxi service and drove one of them while Satish drove the other.
Sukumaran and his family had hired Ramesh’s vehicle for a pilgrimage trip to Sivagangai in July and Ramesh had noticed that Vimala Devi and Pavithra wore a lot of gold jewellery. It was then that he, along with Satish, came up with the plan of killing the women and stealing the gold.
The duo monitored the location early on Thursday and returned around 10 a.m. after making sure that Samikannu was at the hotel and only the women were at home. Sukumaran, a call centre employee, had left around 9.30 a.m. for work.
“On the pretext of enquiring about a second hand car Sukumaran had planned to purchase, the suspects entered the house and Vimala Devi offered them coffee. Suddenly, Satish strangled her from behind using a wire while Ramesh brought a knife from the kitchen and slit her throat,” said Mr. Dhanaraj.
The duo went to the bedroom where Pavithra was sleeping, smothered her with a pillow and then, slit her throat. They fled on Satish’s motorcycle with the loot, the officer added.
Investigators arrested the duo from Aminjikarai on Monday morning and seized a large portion of the stolen gold, the handbag and the murder weapon from Ramesh’s cab.
