A crucial clue provided by a resident on Tuesday led to the solving of the brutal murder for gain of a teenage salesperson in a pawn shop in Madipakkam.
Two men were arrested and gold jewellery, silver artefacts, cash taken from the shop’s locker and stolen CCTV equipment were recovered.
The murder took place last Thursday, around 4.30 p.m. at Sri Balaji Bankers and Jewellers on Bazaar Road, Sadhasivam Nagar, when the victim Madhan Singh (17) was handling business in the absence of his employer Mohanlal.
The suspects, later identified by police as Khadar Ali (29), a businessman from Madipakkam and his driver Dinesh (23) from MGR Nagar, had come to the pawn shop under the pretext of pledging some gold jewellery. “Dinesh held Singh while Ali slit his throat using a barber’s knife and the duo fled with 2.86 kg of gold, 9.3 grams of silver and Rs. 1 lakh in cash. It was a clear, premeditated homicide for valuables and cash,” said commissioner of police, S. George.
The killers also took away the shop’s CCTV cameras.
Five special teams under joint commissioner of police (south) K.P. Shanmugarajeswaran launched a probe. They found that two men who were known to frequent the pawn shop, were the last clients seen there before the killing.
“A watchful resident in the vicinity of the shop provided that vital clue to one of our officers which led to our investigating teams honing in on the suspects. The loot, hidden in Ali’s house, was recovered. The team also recovered the murder weapon and the the CCTV footage,” Mr. George added.
Sources with the investigating team said Ali ran a construction business in K.K. Nagar, apart from a computer spare parts sales firm and an internet browsing centre. Dinesh was Ali’s driver but had recently been posted as a construction supervisor at the latter’s firm. Ali was in huge debt and had pledged gold jewellery at the victim’s shop on a number of occasions.
As Ali knew the shop had lot of gold, he devised the plan with Dinesh and the two killed Singh and robbed the shop, sources added.
In the wake of the murder, Mr. George has called for higher participation of the public in helping police with information that could help solving crimes and also in crime prevention.
“We want the general public to be vigilant and pass on information to us and we will ensure that their identity remains strictly confidential,” he said.
