Neelangarai police in Chennai are planning to exhume the bodies of three victims in the syringe murder cases.
In 2015, Stephen, a 41-year-old businessman, had allegedly killed the three in separate incidents using a potassium cyanide-filled syringe that had been fitted to an umbrella. According to police sources, with the help of his accomplices, Stephen allegedly murdered his brother-in-law John Philomenon on April 19 last year at Thousand Lights. He was also suspected to have murdered Sridhar of Uthiramerur and Henry of Madipakkam on May 17 and October 10 last year respectively.
He had administered a deadly injection to all three victims, with the help of his aides. The murders came to light when the police were investigating a burglary complaint lodged by Stephen. The burglary suspects turned out to be Stephen’s aides who helped him commit the murders.
“We took Stephen under police custody and questioned him. We also searched his farmhouse. But he has cleared everything from there. He had probably instructed someone to do so if he got arrested,” said a police officer. Now the police would have to take the permission from the respective tahsildars to exhume the bodies.
“We have to check for the place where he injected the poison and also check if there are some traces left in the body parts. All the three were buried since they were Christians,” the police officer said.
During interrogation, Stephen told them that he was initially planning to make the murders appear to be an accident. “He had tried it on John Philomenon. He wanted to make him lose his balance while riding a motorcycle, by hitting his vehicle’s handlebar. As this attempt failed to produce the desired result, he adopted this novel method,” said the officer. Stephen went to Navi Mumbai to purchase potassium cyanide.
Stephen was sent back to judicial custody on Friday.
When umbrella turned a lethal weapon
Stephen had removed the tip of an umbrella and made a provision for a syringe to be fitted in its place.
He would fill the syringe with a deadly chemical, suspected to be potassium cyanide.
Using this umbrella with a poisoned tip, his aides would gently inject the poison into a target.
Nobody would know what was going on, not even the victim, who would die in ten minutes, after suffering a heart attack, police sources said.
