Dharmapuri: In a strange case of murder-for-gain to help fund the love marriage of one of their colleagues, resembling a film script, three juvenile offenders of Dharmapuri district were arrested on Saturday, as police traced their whereabouts from their cell phone records five days after the murder.
Police said, P.Pathi, S.Sundareasn and K.Rajenderan (names changed) of Maya Baazar area in Pappireddipatti police limits, all below 17 years and school dropouts, were arrested for the alleged murder of 63-year-old V.Amutha of Pappireddipatti in Harur taluk in the district.
The gruesome murder of the elderly woman on Sunday last came to light when her neighbours noticed the victim lying dead in her house with a chilling throat-slit injury and they then informed the police. Initially, the police thought that Amutha’s death was yet another case of senior citizen killed by burglars who target particularly old people staying alone in their house. However, after police traced the criminals with the help of their mobile phone call records, the misguided youth when questioned admitted to killing Amutha to “get money” to solemnize the love marriage of of one of their colleagues, Pathi.
Pathi, who was working in a spinning mill in Erode, had fallen in love with a woman five years older to him, police said. Few days back, Pathi came to his native village here to “get money” for performing his marriage with his ladylove. But upset over inability to raise funds, he and his two friends, Sundaresan and Rajendran, planned a robbery.
The trio entered the house of Amutha, knowing she was staying alone in the house. They killed her when Amutha tried to cry for help on seeing the boys breaking the locker in her bedroom. The juveniles quickly fled the place with Rs 1,700 cash robbed from her home.
The boys, after committing the murder, went to Vellakovil in Erode district where Pathi did manage to marry his lover at a local temple in the presence of his two friends, police said. However, Pappireddipatti police zeroed in on them and arrested the trio and produced them before the local court.
