On the run for 28 years, suspect in city murder case nabbed from Odisha

CHENNAI: With only a hazy photograph from 28 years ago, a special team of Chennai police camped for two weeks in Odisha and arrested a murder suspect, who fled Chennai after killing his mother-in-law, here in Adambakkam in 1995.

The accused, Harihara Patta Joshi, had started a new family and was living under the radar all these years, police said. “He had told his present wife that he was framed in a cheating case by a previous employer, a finance company in Chennai and hid that he was involved in a murder case. So, whenever police teams went to Odisha earlier, they could not pick the suspect as the family claimed he was never home,” a senior police officer said.

This time too, when a special team from Adambakkam police went to Odisha, they faced a similar situation, but they played the waiting game and spread word that Tamil Nadu police had left Odisha and when Joshi came from hiding, he was secured.

In 1993, while working in a private firm in Guindy, Joshi fell in love with a Chennai woman and the duo married in July 1994. His wife went to her mother’s house after frequent quarrel and applied for divorce. On August 9, 1995, Joshi went to his mother-in-law’s house and stabbed his wife, Indira and her brother, Karthik and their mother, Rama. While Indira and Karthik survived the attack, Rama died.

Adambakkam Police registered a murder case and launched a search for Joshi. He was 26 years old then. “Between 1996 and 2006, Adambakkam police teams visited Ganjam district in Odisha several times, but had no luck after which an absconding chargesheet was filed in court and a warrant was issued,” said a police official.

During an audit of unsolved cases, when Joshi’s murder case came up for review, a special team was asked to travel to Odisha to secure the accused. A senior police officer with the city police had got in touch with his IPS batchmate in Odisha, M Saravana Vivek from Tamil Nadu and sought co-operation. With the help of the local police, a special team of Adambakkam police, headed by Sub Inspector, Kannan and three constables secured the accused.

“The special team was supposed to travel in the first week of December, but trains got cancelled during Michaung Cyclone. We went with blind faith and managed to secure the accused,” a senior police official told DT Next.

The accused, Adambakkam police said, is well off and did not work for the last two decades. He was produced before a magistrate in Behrampur and is being brought back to the city.