7 days, 9 murders: is Chennai safe?

4 cases cracked; acquaintances of victims are said to be responsible for others

Nine murders, including four for gain, in the last one week alone have sent shockwaves among residents of the city. Is this city safe anymore, residents wonder, and question the efficacy of policing.

Four cases have been cracked with the suspects behind bars while the rest are believed to be the work of acquaintances of the victims, who committed the crimes for gold and cash, police say.

On Friday evening, homemaker Manju Devi (48) was found lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen of her first-floor home in Kalathiappa Street, Choolai. The house was ransacked and gold jewellery and other valuables were missing.

“We have obtained CCTV footage in which a man is seen arriving outside Devi’s building on a Scooty in the evening. He seems calm and knows his way into the house. He is clearly a family member. We are probing the lead,” said an investigating officer

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However, the murder of the woman in a densely-populated neighbourhood has left residents deeply unhappy with the way the police are going about maintaining law and order. “If policing was effective, there would not be such crimes, and cases wouldn’t need to be resolved,” a resident said.

In the Kolathur murder of G. Hemavathi (49) on Thursday afternoon, police suspect the hand of a close relative who is believed to have slit her throat at her flat on Girija Nagar 5 Cross Street.

She lay unconscious and bled profusely in the drawing room before a neighbour spotted her and rushed her to a hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.

“The suspect had dined with her at home and they seem to have had an argument after he demanded money, leading to her murder. We have identified the man and a search is underway to nab him,” added an officer with the Kolathur police.

On November 15, Chennaiites woke up to the shocking story of the murder of a woman and her six-year-old son and the death of a medical representative in Manadi. In both the murders, police are yet to apprehend the suspects who are said to have committed the killings over personal enmity.

However, police have cracked the murder of octogenarian S. Veliappan in Choolaimedu on Tuesday afternoon. The culprits are a gang of youths who attempted to snatch the ornaments he was wearing, police said.

Suspect Vinod alias ‘Pambu’ Vinod (25) of Pudupet who often hung out near the elderly man’s home joined hands with a teenager and another youth to pocket the gold but ended up stabbing the 87-year-old to death.

Vinod and the teenager were apprehended on Friday night. Their aide is on the run.

H : Petleepeter : November 23, 2014 01:20 IST