Sivaganga
A soothsayer and his associate have allegedly strangulated to death an aged woman after attacking her and her husband, a retired teacher, at their house at Okkur near here and escaped with jewels. However, special police teams cracked the case within hours and arrested the duo.
The aged couple were living alone in their house at Chinna Veedhi area near Okkur under Madagupatti police limit and the suspected murder for gain came to light on Sunday morning when the milkman found the doors open and the aged woman – Meenakshi, 78, dead and her husband Adhappan, 82, lying unconscious.
On being alerted, senior police officers, including Deputy Inspector General of Police (Ramanathapuram range) Rupesh Kumar Meena, Superintendent of Police R Rohit Nathan and DSP Abdul Kafur visited the spot and found it was a case of murder for gain.
The SP said four special teams were formed and one of the teams secured the duo within hours.
“Within hours after forming the special teams, police arrested the two accused, identified as K. Ganesan, 25, and G. Chellapandiyan, 25, with a car,” the SP said. Earlier, after visiting the scene of occurrence, police pressed into service a sniffer dog, which ran some distance and stopped.
Meanwhile, Adhappan who was admitted to the Sivaganga Government Medical College Hospital became conscious and told the police that the soothsayer, whom he and his wife met a few days ago, came to their house with his associate, attacked them and murdered his wife.
He said after he fell ill a few days ago, he and his wife visited the soothsayer, who gave them a ‘divine spear’ after performing some rituals and collected ₹ 30,000 from them. When he demanded more money after visiting his house, Meenakshi refused. After a wordy duel, the accused pushed them down and strangulated his wife to death, he told the police.
