A 20-year-old young woman, a college student, was stabbed to death by a construction worker in Kattupakkam. He stole her two-sovereign gold chain, while she was alone at home on Monday morning and her parents were away on work.
The victim C. Meena, is the daughter of Chandrasekar and Dhanalakshmi, whose house is located on 4th street, PG Avenue, Kattupakkam near Poonamallee. She was in her second year, studying B.Sc. Mathematics at a city college. On Monday, she was alone at home. As construction work was ongoing on the first floor of her house, a few workers were frequently there.
On Monday, Dhanalakshmi had tried to reach her daughter over the phone to check whether the workers had turned up for work. Her daughter's mobile phone was at first ringing with no answer, and later was found switched off. Suspecting something wrong, Dhanalakshmi called her neighbour and asked her to check the house. The grill gate was bolted inside and wooden door was not locked. The neighbour was shocked to see the young woman, lying on the floor, with blood all around. Her parents and police personnel rushed to the spot.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ambattur, Deepa Sathyan, Assistant Commissioner of Police, B. Sampath and other police personnel went to the spot and held enquiries. The girl was found stabbed in her neck with a scissors and there were marks of her struggle to fight off the assailant. Her gold chain of two sovereigns and mobile phone were missing from the spot. The body was sent to a government hospital for a post-mortem.
From the preliminary investigation done by Poonamalle police inspector Bharathi, a mason working at the construction site had gone missing, and had reportedly told his family member over the phone that he was leaving to bring a few others for construction work. His mobile phone was found switched off. Tracing his address, police conducted a search at his house and recovered a blood stained shirt with a mobile phone inside the pocket. That mobile phone was confirmed as belonging to the deceased.
After analysing CCTV footage and call records of the suspect who was missing, police caught Shanmugam, 45, at his village near Tindivanam on Monday night. He was brought back by a special team and was interrogated. Ms. Deepa said, “The crime was reported in the forenoon of Monday. Our preliminary investigation revealed that it was murder for monetary gain. Our personnel investigated thoroughly and traced the suspect on Monday night. Further investigations are on.”
During interrogation, the suspect Shanmugam admitted to have committed the murder as the girl refused to give up the gold chain. He plunged the scissor into her neck as she raised an alarm, police said. He was arrested and remanded to judicial custody on Tuesday.