Murder, bank loot mystery solved with arrest of worker
Police arrested four people for allegedly murdering an employee and looting an agricultural co-operative bank at Venmani village in coastal Nagapattinam district.
The masked gang entered the bank at closing time when only two employees, Kamaraj and Ganapathy were present. They killed Kamaraj, opened the vault and looted Rs20mn worth of jewels and Rs200,000 cash. They also tied up Ganapathy before escaping.
However police became suspicious on finding discarded surgical gloves at the crime scene and Ganapathy’s contradictory statements.
On interrogation, he confessed he had plotted with his wife and another couple to loot the bank for ‘quick’ money.
The jewels and cash were recovered from the septic tank of Ganapathy’s house.

Drunk men drive on wrong side, fatally knocks down bike rider
In a midnight accident, two Erode-based leather businessmen driving a luxury Audi car fatally knocked down a hotel employee returning home on his motorcycle at Spencer’s Plaza junction on Anna Salai in Chennai. Later police found that the men were drunk and were driving on the wrong side of the road.
Kevin Raj’s body was trapped in the iron rails of a nearby metro rail project. Meanwhile the businessmen Mohamed Shafi, 31 and Mohamed Farook, 39, continued driving and hit a van but had to stop as their car’s air bags deployed and trapped them in.
The van driver sustained minor injuries and passersby alerted police.  
Investigations are underway.

Temple town gets ready to receive 4.5mn devotees
The Tamil Nadu government is spending about Rs133bn to spruce up the temple town of Kumbakonam where nearly 4.5mn devotees are expected to gather for the February 22 ‘holy’ dip in the Mahamagam water tank about 120km from Tiruchi.
The roads are being re-laid, temples are being renovated, water supply is being regulated to all parts of the town and electricity and power grids are being refurbished. The government has also deployed extra buses and trains and cleared out space for parking lots.
Besides this, medical, fire and other emergency services and extra police have been arranged in the town.

Young singer and composer Shan Johnson dead
Up and coming singer and composer Shan Johnson, 31, was found dead at her apartment at Kodambakkam in Chennai last week.
Police suspect that she suffered a cardiac arrest. Shan was the daughter of late Malayalam music director Johnson and was working as a marketing executive at a shopping mall. She was a trained Carnatic and Western musician who has composed music for several devotional albums and some films.
She was a member of the band The Sound Bulb. Her memorable songs include Ravumaayave for the Malayalam film Vettah. Her funeral was held in Thrissur in Kerala.

Factory fire injures two
Two men were injured in a fire at a phosphorus manufacturing unit in the industrial town of Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district about 45km from the temple city of Madurai last week.
Police suspect that combustion of explosives in the factory caused the fire.