Chennai: A special team of the city police arrested S. Dhashwanth (24), who raped and murdered a seven-year-old child earlier this year, in connection with the murder of his mother.
A special team rounded him up near Chembur in Mumbai, according to a senior police officer. He will be brought to Chennai after obtaining a transit warrant from a magistrate there.
Dhashwanth's inclination to bet on race horses, a hobby he acquired from his father, Sekar, is said to have helped police in narrowing down the places where he would have left to after absconding. After scanning through the racecourses within the state, a team was sent to Maharashtra and Dhashwant was found there, police said. Last Saturday, Dhashwanth's mother, Sarala was bludgeoned to death in her house in Kundrathur. Jewellery worth 200 grams and her son, who was out on bail went missing from the house pointing the needle of suspicion towards Dhashwanth.
Meanwhile, police also found that he approached two persons he acquainted while in prison to help him pledge the jewels before escaping to Mumbai. Police suspected that he could have left Chennai because he had last switched on his mobile phone at the central railway station and then switched it off. “We pursued all possible leads available at our disposal and were able to trace him with the leads we got,” a senior police officer said. A team headed by Kundrathur inspector Charles and three others rounded him up near Chembur on Wednesday, police sources said.Dhashwanth didn't try to escape when apprehended by the police team and reportedly confessed to the murder, sources added.
The 24-year-old, who was arrested for the rape and murder of the minor in February this year, was granted bail in September as the prosecution failed to file the chargesheet. The trial in the case was supposed to begin on Tuesday.
After he came out on bail, Dhashwanth allegedly threatened the family of the child that they would be harmed, according to a complaint at the Chengalpet town police station by the child's father, CDS Babu in November.
