Chided for arrears, Chennai youth kills mom & brother, packs bodies in garbage bags

CHENNAI: If not for his “confessional” voice note to his cousin, none of his neighbours would have pegged the soft-spoken college student to be behind the murder of his mother and younger brother in their house in Thiruvottiyur. The bodies, packed in black garbage bags were lying in the house since Thursday morning and were recovered on Friday night when the murder came to light after the youth's message.

“He placed his phone and the house keys in a bag on the front porch of his cousin's house in Theradi, about a kilometre away,” Ramesh, a relative of the family told DT Next. For two days, the accused had loitered around the city after the murders, but eventually gave up any thoughts of escape and returned to his neighbourhood waiting for the police to pick him up.

M Nitesh (20) was arrested on Saturday morning from the seashore in Thiruvottiyur, a few meters from his house on Thiru Nagar 1st street. The narrow lane houses at least five families who are relatives of the victims- M Padma (45) and M Sanjay (14) and none of them suspected anything amiss for two days despite there being no movement from the occupants of the house.

"The elders were not on talking terms and since all three of them leave home early in the day, the relatives did not suspect anything," Ramesh said.

Padma worked in an acupuncture clinic on Anna Salai and Sanjay was a class 10 student. The accused, M Nitesh had completed a B.Sc Data analytics course from a college in Velachery.

Nitesh has allegedly told the police that he was upset over his mother’s consistent chiding about his arrears which led to his dastardly act, but the family members are struggling to come to terms with it as he had never exhibited any violent tendencies and was generally soft spoken. "It is true that Padma used to be harsh with the boys, but she had to because she was raising them alone as her husband is working in Oman to support the family," according to a relative.

"He had first stabbed the woman during the early hours of Thursday when she was asleep and when the brother woke up, he stabbed him repeatedly too," a police officer said.

On murdering his school-going younger brother, he has told the police that he didn’t want him to struggle alone as their father is working abroad and with their mother dead and him likely in Jail, he decided it was better that his brother is killed too.

Nitesh's father, Murugan is in Oman and visits the family once a year. Murugan has been working in West Asian countries for about 25 year to support his family. He last visited the family in January this year.

"We have notified him without mentioning the murder and claiming that his wife has died in accident. We could not bring ourselves to tell what transpired over phone and are hoping that he does not watch the news," Ramesh said.