A 23-year-old engineer, wanted in the November 27 murder of his mother at Kundrathur in Chennai, was arrested in Mumbai last week.
Daswanth had been out on parole for the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl since February this year. However Daswanth kept troubling his parents for money and finally smashed his mother’s head and stole her jewels. He then sold it to book a flight to Mumbai using a fake address and mobile number.
Based on a complaint by Daswanth’s father, Chennai police alerted their counterparts in Mumbai and Bengaluru to trace him. They finally arrested him while he was watching horse races at the Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai. However he escaped police custody during a toilet break on the way to airport.
He was arrested again the following day in Andheri and brought to Chennai.
Music director Aadithyan dead
Tamil film musician Aadithyan died of kidney failure in Hyderabad on December 5. He was 63 and is survived by wife and two daughters.
Born as Titus, he changed his name to Aadithyan when he started working for films. He has composed music for about 60 Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. His debut was Tamil film Amaran in 1992. His other films include Lucky Man, Nalaya Seidhi, Seevalaperi Pandi and Kovilpatti Veerlakshmi. He was among the first to remix popular film songs as pop and reggae albums that sold well in India and Malaysia.
The multi-talented musician even hosted a cookery show titled Aadhithyan’s kitchen on Jaya TV for eight years. He was also a painter whose works were sought after by collectors.
Comedy writer dies aged 87
Popular Tamil humourist Bhagyam Ramaswami who wrote under several monikers died of kidney failure in Chennai. He was 87 and is survived by wife and three sons.
Born as Ja Ra Sundaresan, at Jalakandapuram in Salem district, his pen name was a combination of his parents’ names. He worked for Tamil magazine Kumudham for nearly 40 years from 1963 to 1990. He created fictitious characters Seetha Pati and Appusami to write short stories, plays and novels that reflected Tamil culture and current affairs full of wit and humour.
Later his stories were compiled into books and novels. The characters of Appusami and Seethapati were illustrated by cartoonist Jayaraj. These characters were so popular that he ran a humour club and music troupe to act out their stories.
AIADMK observes Jaya death anniversary
Tamil Nadu mourned the first death anniversary of AIADMK leader and chief minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa on December 5 with prayers, rallies and visits to her grave on the Marina beach in Chennai.
Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and his cabinet with 4,000 supporters laid wreaths at the flower decorated memorial. The AIADMK cadre wore black and prayed for some time before leaving. Similarly thousands of mourners visited throughout the day. T T V Dinakaran, the ousted AIADMK leader, also visited separately.
In other districts, similar prayers were offered at temples and mass poor feeding was held. In Coimbatore, bronze statues of Jayalalithaa and her mentor M G Ramachandran were put up on Avinashi road near AIADMK founder Annadurai’s statue.
Tamil Nadu
