Chennai’s biggest manhunt in recent times for >the killer of Infosys techie S. Swathi came to a close late on Friday, with the police detaining their only suspect in the case, P. Ramkumar, a 24-year-old mechanical engineering graduate, from Sengottai in Tirunelveli.
Myriad speculations and conspiracy theories were laid to rest as police zeroed in on the killer.
After Swathi was hacked to death on platform 2 of the Nungambakkam railway station on June 24, the case was initially handled by the railway police. The case was handed over to a special team of the city police after the intervention of the Madras High Court on June 27. For a week, the city held its breath, amidst social media speculation and frenzy, for the police to crack the case.
In an operation right out of a Kollywood blockbuster, policemen surrounded Ramkumar’s house in Meenakshipuram in Sengottai around 11.30 p.m on Friday.
Power supply to the street was then switched off before police personnel knocked on the door. They found the suspect in the backyard, bleeding from the neck after having apparently cut himself. He seemed stunned and unable to move when the police moved in to grab him.
The watchman of the mansion who gave information on the suspect Ramkumar, to the police.
He was rushed to a private hospital nearby and from there to a hospital in Thenkasi, 12 km from the village, and finally to the Tirunelveli Government Hospital some 58 km away in a 108 ambulance.
“Though he is said to be out of danger, we will bring him to Chennai only after the doctors give clearance,” police sources said.
Announcing Ramkumar’s arrest at a press meet in the city on Saturday, Chennai Police Commissioner T.K. Rajendran said the suspect had come to the city three months ago and was staying in a Choolaimedu mansion. “We discovered that he had been stalking Swathi and seemed to want to befriend her,” Mr. Rajendran said.
Ramkumar had reportedly followed Swathi on June 10, 11 and 16. “He followed her to her office on June 16. On June 24, he struck Swathi with an aruval (billhook) from behind; she fell and he hacked at her thrice and ran away. He returned to A.S. Mansion, situated in 8 Street, Sowrashtra Nagar, where he has been staying,” he said.
“After having lunch, and changing his clothes, he left for his hometown around 3.30 p.m. Swathi’s phone was also recovered from him,” said a senior police officer.
The police investigation in the case combined old-fashioned, dogged questioning with digital recreation of the suspect’s movements from CCTV footage. “During our door-to-door check in Choolaimedu, the watchman of A.S. Mansion, Gopal, was able to tally the suspect’s photograph with that of a youngster, who was living in the mansion, but had been missing for a while. Subsequently, the photo on the address proof document submitted in the mansion’s records matched with the suspect’s picture. With the [hometown] address provided [by the mansion], we tracked him down in co-ordination with the Tirunelveli police,” the officer said.
The city police cracked the case in just five days. On June 27, special teams were formed under the supervision of K. Shankar, Additional Commissioner (South), comprising two joint commissioners, two deputy commissioners and other police officers. “We had requested the public to share information about the suspect seen in the CCTV grab and many from within the city, State and other states shared information,” said the Commissioner.
The special teams fanned out to Choolaimedu, Paranur and Mahindra City and conducted enquiries with Swathi’s family, friends and colleagues. Policemen also checked all the hotels and lodges in the city and collected CCTV footage.
“We are yet to ascertain the motive behind the murder. We will submit the evidence before the appropriate authority. Our team is in Tirunelveli to interrogate Ramkumar who is undergoing medical treatment. We will do it once the doctors agree,” said the Commissioner.
