PUDUCHERRY: An elderly couple of French nationality were found murdered at home at Anna Nagar on Wednesday morning. Balakrishnan (72)  and his wife Hemalatha(61) were found dead in their bedroom, suspected to be strangulated with pillows, police said. They were living alone in their house with their two sons living in France and daughter in China.

As the couple could not be seen around since Tuesday afternoon, their neighbours went inside the house through the open door, found both of them lying dead and informed the police. The almirah was found open and the house ransacked. The police suspected that the crime was committed by some persons known to the couple as the main door was not broken to gain entry into the house. The case is suspected to be one for gain, going by the fact that property documents, valuables and cash were looted. Police seized the bodies and sent them for postmortem.

“We are waiting for postmortem report as well as the arrival of the children of the deceased by Thursday evening to get family details,” said C Maran, Superintendent of Police (East).

Immediately after the incident came to light, Chief Minister V Narayansamy, who visited the scene at Anna Nagar in his Nellithope constituency, told newspersons that the culprits would soon be nabbed with the help of CCTV footages from in the nearby area. DGP Sundari Nanda also visited the scene of the crime. The couple were also closely related to former minister C Jayakumar.