Avadi cops’ SIR act ends murder suspect’s 21-year run
Rajendran converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim woman two decades ago and identified himself as Rafiq. He made a living by performing religious ceremonies, always moved from town to town, stayed at bus shelters, and rarely visited home.
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CHENNAI: The Avadi city police’s creative investigation technique brought them to the door step of a murder suspect who had been on the run for 21 years.
Taking advantage of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), which has captured the imagination of the whole state, a special team of Avadi city police, posing as revenue officials issuing SIR forms, arrived in Cuddalore and gathered information about the murder suspect who had remained under the radar after murdering his friend in a drunken brawl 21 years ago in Ennore.
Their efforts paid off as the team came to know that the suspect P Rajendran alias Rafiq has been living a nomadic life for the past two decades. They traced him to Bengaluru and arrested him.
The case dates back to 2004, when Rajendran used to live with his wife Rasool Biwi in Ennore. On May 24, one of his relatives approached the Ennore police to relay the last words from Rafiq before he disappeared: "There is a dead man in my house. We were drinking when he spoke ill of my wife. So I murdered him. Please take care of my wife."
The Ennore Police recovered the body of the victim Thajudeen and registered a case of murder, but remained unsuccessful in apprehending the suspect for two decades. During a recent review of pending cases, Commissioner K Shankar had flagged the unsolved murder and directed the formation of special teams to trace the accused.
"The information from his case files included a very old photograph, his name P Rajendran and that he was from Cuddalore district. From the electoral roll, we made a list of persons named P Rajendran in Cuddalore, then posed as officials issuing SIR forms and, finally, found out our suspect belonged to Akkanur village," said T Veerakumar, assistant commissioner of police.
Rajendran converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim woman two decades ago and identified himself as Rafiq. He made a living by performing religious ceremonies, always moved from town to town, stayed at bus shelters, and rarely visited home.
One of the teams was sent to Ariyalur and another to Bengaluru and, after a week's surveillance, the police apprehended him. "Since the 2004 murder, he was arrested in couple of petty cases, but his involvement in the murder case never came up," a police officer said.
Rajendran was brought to Tamil Nadu and produced before a magistrate. He has been remanded in judicial custody.
