Chennai: Man murders, robs 12 sovereign from woman for wife's medical expense

CHENNAI: The Tiruvallur police have arrested a man for the murder of a 55-year-old woman to rob her of 12 sovereign jewellery when she was alone at home in Pazhaverkadu.

The accused lived a few streets away from the victim and had committed the crime to fund the hospital expenses for his pregnant wife, investigations revealed.

On Monday (July 13), the Tiruppalaivanam police were alerted about a woman found dead in her house by her husband.

The victim was identified as R Vanaja, who lived with her husband, Radhakrishnan, near the old bus stand in Pazhaverkadu. Their children, a son and two daughters, are married and live separately, the police said.

Radhakrishnan ran a provision store near their home while Vanaja sold idli batter from home. On Monday (July 13) morning, Vanaja returned home after assisting her husband at the shop.

Around noon, Vanaja's house was locked from outside when a house help went there. She informed Radhakrishnan, who tried to reach out to his wife.

As there was no response from Vanaja to Radhakrishnan's phone calls, he went to the house and used an alternate key to open the door and found Vanaja lying in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds on her neck.

On information, the police moved the body to the Ponneri Government Hospital for post-mortem examination.

After sustained investigations, the police zeroed in on the accused, B Yugendar alias Abdul Rahman (29). Police investigations revealed that he entered Vanaja's home in the pretext of buying batter and murdered her.

A native of Uthukottai, he married a woman from Pazhaverkadu and moved in with her four years ago, police said.

Police recovered the stolen jewels- eight sovereign thali chain, three sovereign bangles, one sovereign earrings and a ring from him and it was revealed he committed the crime for the medical expenses for his pregnant wife.

He was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.