Four people were arrested last week for the brutal murder of a realtor on October 10 at Karamadai in Coimbatore.
Murugesan, 50, reportedly failed to return Rs40,000 borrowed from one of the alleged murderers. The gang had been pestering him for the past six months and gave him an ultimatum. When Murugesan backtracked, the gang called him to an isolated place where he was made to drink alcohol and then he was stabbed. He died at a local hospital.
In another incident in suburban Chennai, R D Suresh Kumar was arrested for murdering three of his brother’s business rivals at Kalathur village.
Suresh Kumar killed the three men over two years after they had ordered the contract killing of his brother Vijaya Kumar, a local politician, in October 2012. Police kept a lookout after Suresh went into hiding and caught him while he was attending his brother’s death anniversary last week.
Police solve
murder of
psychologist
Chennai police have solved the June 13 murder of Emma Gonsalves, an 82-year-old psychologist found dead in her apartment at Egmore with the arrest of a television technician and his son last week.
The case had been transferred to crime branch police because the city police had made no headway in three months. They had even wrongfully implicated Emma’s nephew, Emmanuel on the complaint of a relative. However the crime branch police studied surveillance camera footage and a neighbour’s evidence to catch Mohamed and his 16-year-old son who had visited Emma’s flat. They also recovered Emma’s jewellery and a laptop from the suspects.
Meanwhile Emmanuel was also retained in custody on suspicion of killing his father three years ago.
Conservationist
dies after fall
Ajit Koulaji, the co-convener of the Puducherry chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) died after an accidental fall from his house on October 12 in Chennai.
He was 66 and survived by wife Ratna who is also an architect. Ajit graduated from New Delhi’s School of Planning and Architecture in 1970 and became attached to Auroville, a religious commune in Puducherry in 1971. He joined INTACH in 1980 and is credited with the restoration and conservation of heritage buildings like the Indian Coffee House, Hotel de L’Orient, Vysial Street, Maison Perumal and others in Puducherry.
Ajit and Ratna won many awards for their work.
Three run over
by drunk driver
A taxi driver and his two friends in an alcoholic stupor ran over three sleeping pavement dwellers, including a pregnant woman, at a bus stop in Perungudi in suburban Chennai last week.
Sivakumar, the driver, reportedly hit a cow before juddering into the pavement. Eyewitnesses said that the pregnant woman and her husband died instantly and their bodies were dragged for some distance before a chasing police patrol car arrested Sivakumar. His two friends who tried to flee were also caught. The dead couple’s 18-month-old son survived the accident.
Bonded workers
rescued
At least 40 people employed as bonded labour in a bore well digging company were rescued from Nandhampalayam in Namakkal district last week.
The district administration took action based on complaints filed by nine labourers from Madhya Pradesh who alleged that the unit owner Murugesan had not paid them for the past six months.
