The Puducherry police on Thursday claimed to have solved the murder case of a 48-year-old woman who was strangled to death by unknown person and her jewels stolen in Mudaliarpet a fortnight ago.
The accused nabbed by the police has been identified as V.Sivakumar, mini-van driver of Villupuram.
The alleged incident occurred on November 27 when Thiripurasundari alias Rani(48), wife of a Village Administrative Officer(VAO), was strangulated to death when she was alone in her house at Muduliarpet.
Based on a complaint given by her brother, Sambandam, a case was registered under Section 302(Murder) and 382 (Theft after preparation made for causing death) of Indian Penal Code.
When the police began investigation they had no clues or specific leads to work on.
Inspector General of Police Praveer Ranjan on Thursday said initially, the case was blind and there was no any clue. A special team was constituted to apprehend the accused person involved in the dastardly crime.
The police investigations began with enquiries with the neighbours and then on missing auto-rickshaw drivers. Later, the investigation went into property dispute angle. During the process, the husband of the deceased divulged that one Sivakumar had borrowed Rs.10,000 during Deepavali festival from his wife and he frequently visited the house.
Mr. Ranjan said the accused Sivakumar was secured on Thursday and he admitted the offence.
Police said Sivakumar(43), minivan driver of Villupuram confessed that on November 27, at 2.10 pm he had gone to Thiripurasundari’s residence and sought a loan of Rs.5,000 from her. As he was in dire need of money to pay dues of his loan amount and tempted by seeing jewels on her neck, he followed her to pooja room.
Frustrated over her denial of financial help, he caught hold of her neck and strangulated her to death by using a towel.
Later, he removed jewels, including chain and ear-studs, two bangles from her person and fled from the spot. He also confessed that jewels were pledged at a pawn broker shop in Villupuram.
The police recovered stolen properties such as chain and other jewels which were worn by her, worth about 2.4 lakh, from a pawn broker shop.
