Four persons including three juveniles were arrested on Saturday, for murdering a 57-year-old banker in Velachery on Wednesday night.
N. Nagarajan, the victim had been an assistant manager at the Besant Nagar branch of TNSC Bank.
On Thursday, the police found that four youngsters had been seen going into the house. All four are residents of north Chennai.
“We began our investigation in Kasimedu, as the victim had worked there for a long time. When we questioned local residents, some of them said Nagarajan was gay. They told us that a few young men had gone to Nagarajan’s house on Wednesday,” said a senior police officer.
On Saturday, all four youths were picked up and detained. One of them, Gokul (20) is a resident of Royapuram, while the other three juveniles are residents of Kasimedu.
“The youths told us that Nagarajan used to give young men liquor and money in exchange for sex. On Wednesday night, all four of them, along with one other friend, had gone to Nagarajan’s house. When Nagarajan tried to force two of them to have sex, the youths hit him and then strangled him. Then they flung chilli powder across the room and escaped on Nagarajan’s motorcycle, to make it look like a murder for gain,” the officer said.
The youngsters also told the police that Nagarajan used to call them from different mobile numbers. “Until then we had no idea that he had three mobile numbers,” said the officer.
The police are on the lookout for the fifth youngster who is absconding.
Nagarajan lived his mother, 87-year-old Kamala in a duplex apartment that belonged to his daughter, in Venus Colony Extension. His wife Selvi had gone to visit their daughter, who lives in the US.
Around 7 a.m. on Thursday Kamala went into her son’s bedroom on the first floor of the house to give him coffee and found his body on the bed. During the preliminary probe, police found cash and Nagarajan’s mobile phone missing.
His motorcycle was later found parked outside the Perungudi railway station. Kamala had told the police that Nagarajan had had drinks with some of his friends who had come home on Wednesday night.
