Coimbatore: The Tirupur rural police on Thursday night arrested an autorickshaw driver for murdering an elderly woman and stealing five sovereigns of gold mangalsutra and Rs 10,000 from her on December 30. The accused has been identified as B Sakthivel, 35, of Thiruvalluvar Nagar at Vellakoil in Tirupur district.
Police said Arumugam, 65, and wife A Eswari, 55, were residing on Moolanur Road at Vellakoil in Tirupur district. Their son Udhayakumar, 35, married Selvarani, 34, 12 years ago and was residing in a house at Sultanpet in Coimbatore district. The couple did not have a child.
Arumugam has been running a furniture shop on Semmandampalayam Road at Vellakoil for the last seven years. He used to send the furniture items to his customers’ place in Sakthivel’s auto. A few weeks ago, Arumugam discussed with Sakthivel about his son not having a child. Sakthivel advised Arumugam to perform parihara puja ritual at his furniture shop on December 30 for his daughter-in-law to conceive.
Believing his words, Arumugam made arrangements for the puja. Sakthivel conducted the puja and later, asked the couple to lie on the ground to offer prayer to the God. When the couple did so, Sakthivel took a sickle and attacked Eswari and Arumugam. Eswari died on the spot and Arumugam was battling for life.
Meanwhile, Sakthivel snatched five sovereigns of gold mangalsutra from Eswari and took away Rs 10,000from the shop.