COIMBATORE
The Singanallur police on Saturday arrested two persons, including a teenager, in connection with the murder of an 83-year-old man, who was residing alone at his house on Tiruchi Road here.
The police said that Vikram (24), a taxi driver by profession, and his 17-year-old cousin, both natives of Karaikudi, were arrested with the help of Sivaganga police.
The accused, according to the police, murdered S. Krishnasamy of Singanallur by strangling him with a wire after assaulting him with an iron rod on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.
The accused left the house in Krishnasamy’s car after stealing a few sovereigns of jewellery, his mobile phone and money, said the police.
Krishnasamy was living alone in the house and the murder came to light when the security guard he employed came to the house on Friday morning.
The police traced the accused to Karaikudi after cyber cell officials found that Krishnasamy’s mobile tower location was active at the place.
Coimbatore City Police sought the help of Sivaganga police who found Krishnasamy’s car on the side of a road near Karaikudi with a flat tyre.
The police found the visiting card of a lodge from the car which led them to the place where the accused were hiding.
The accused, who confessed to the murder, told the police that they had gone out to source liquor after checking into the lodge. They left the car after one of its tyres got punctured.
A police officer said that Vikram was recently remanded in a theft case and he came to know that Krishnasamy was staying alone at the house from a man who worked as a security guard.
Vikram and the teenager who was staying at Ondipudur reportedly observed the house a day before the murder and ensured that the elderly man was staying alone at night as the security guard worked between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
After entering the house, the accused beat up the man with an iron rod and later strangulated him with a wire. The Singanallur police brought the two accused from Karaikudi to Coimbatore on Saturday morning and recorded their arrests.