Manipur worker held for rape and murder of 85-year-old

The police quoted him as saying that he did not know that she was an old woman as he was in an inebriated condition. The police said that the accused A Samir Khan (24) of Kwakta Bazar area in Bishnupur District, Manipur, fractured his left leg while jumping from the North Coimbatore Flyover to escape from the police around 3 am. He was under treatment in the convict ward in the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) amidst tight police security. 

A senior police officer said Samir had completed Class 8 and was working as a cleaner in a hotel in Malappuram, Kerala. His cousin Reena tried to get him work in some hotel here. “She got him temporary accommodation in her friend’s house in Gandhipuram. Sunday was Akash’s birthday and close to 15 youth from the North-Eastern States had come there for partying. Samir became thoroughly drunk. He came out of the house and saw the woman sleeping in her house. She had the light on and the door was ajar. To avoid been seen, he shifted her from the cot to the floor. But the woman woke up, resisted and raised her voice. To silence her he strangulated her to death. Then he raped her and took away her bangles,” the officer said. 

Later he fled the place when he noticed police swarming the crime scene. On enquiry, police came to know about the party in Akash’s house. On quizzing several persons, the police learnt that Samir was not there from Monday morning. They spotted him at the Cross Cut Road in Gandhipuram in the early hours of Thursday and tried to nab him. But he ran and jumped of the North Coimbatore Flyover. He fractured a leg and suffered other injuries for which he was hospitalised. “The two bangles weighing 1.5 sovereigns he stole from the woman were recovered. Samir will be shifted to the prison after he recovers,” the police added.