More than a month after the brutal attack on city-based neurosurgeon S.D. Subbiah and his subsequent death, the police have still not managed to solve the case.
Dr. Subbiah was hacked by two assailants on September 14 in full public view in R.A. Puram, as he was leaving the private hospital where he was a consultant. Two nearby CCTV cameras captured the attack.
The 58-year-old neurosurgeon, who suffered more than 20 cut wounds, died early on September 23.
Police suspected two brothers, Basil and Boris, had engineered the attack that was carried out by two unknown men. Basil is an advocate at the Madras High Court while Boris works at an airline company.
The doctor’s relatives, who were trying to grab the doctor’s 2.4-acre plot of land in Anjugrammam near Kanyakumari, and had been thwarted in their attempts, had ordered the hit, police said.
After the doctor died, the brothers surrendered in court and were taken into police custody. However, to date the investigators haven’t been able to conclusively link them to the murder.
“The police have had the brothers in custody for seven days, but have not been able to get information from them about the actual killers. All we know is that the brothers purchased individual SIM cards two days before the murder, and we suspect, used them to commute with the assailants,” said an officer.
Even though the killers were caught on camera, they have not yet been identified. The CCTV footage has been sent for a facial identification analysis, and the results are awaited.
Some of Basil’s friends are absconding, raising suspicions that they could have been the assailants, , the officer said
The investigation had earlier run into trouble, when sub-inspector Sankaranarayanan, part of the investigating team, was assaulted by advocates on the Madras High Court premises after he allegedly attempted to apprehend the assailants who happened to be there.
He was diverted by Basil and then beaten up, and the assailants escaped, a source said.
“A.A. Mohan, the doctor’s brother-in-law, said the assailants were seen on a blue Pulsar with Basil just before the attack on the sub-inspector. But attempts to track down the vehicle have not been successful,” said the officer.
The case has left most police personnel, especially those in the lower ranks, dissatisfied, especially since the injured sub-inspector has been remanded to custody after the advocates filed a complaint against him.
However, an investigating officer said one key suspect has been caught and the case is expected to be cracked soon.
