Crime file: Woman hires gang to kill husband; sexual harassment case against lawyer, and more

Woman hires gang to kill husband

Chennai: A woman, conspiring with her paramour, hired mercenaries who hacked her husband to death in Madu­rav­oyil on Thursday, a second gruesome incident that comes after Sunday’s when a woman, who chec­ked into a lodge in Mah­abalipuram with her partner was murdered by him.

The four hired killers, Giri­dharan, 25, Perumal, 22, Senthil, 28 and Saravanan, 24 from Cheyyar and the woman, Vidhya, have been arrested and remanded to custody. A search is on for the woman’s paramour, Manik­andan and the leader of the hired gang, Durai Raj.

Rajkumar, 30, an electrician with a private inverter firm in Porur, was married to Vidhya, 26, and they had a six-year-old daughter. The family resided at Ashtalakshmi Nagar, Alapakkam near Maduravoyal, police said.

Rajkumar had taken to drinking and Vidhya was having an affair with Manikandan, a ward boy working in Bangalore, a situation that had angered Rajkumar often.

Vidhya and her paramour, with the help of his friend, Durai Raj, a felon, hired a gang from Cheyyar to kill Rajakumar. The gang entered through the front door, which she had kept open, murdered Rajkumar and took his eight-sovereign gold chain while Vidhya had gone back to sleep.

It was supposed to appear like a ‘murder for gain’ as planned by the woman and her lover, a senior police officer said, but the city police’s effective night patrol system caught up with the gang members.

The beat police, who were conducting vehicle checks near the Astalakshmi Nag­ar-Krishna Nagar junction in Maduravoyal, sto­pped them.

“Sub-Inspectors Seba­s­tian and Elumalai got suspicious on seeing the men’s blood-stained shirts and the answers they gave to their questions,” S.Se­nthil Kum­aran, Assistant Comm­issioner, Koyambedu said.

They were taken to the Maduravoyal police station and investigated, where they confessed to have committed the murder.

Solving the earlier murder, the police on Wedn­esday arrested Mani Madh­avan for killing his partner, Divya, in a lodge in Mahab­alipuram on Sunday.

The couple had married without their families’ knowledge and they were living separately. The man, suspecting her fidelity, had murdered her on Sunday after an argument.

Next: Sexual harassment case against lawyer

Sexual harassment case against lawyer

Belgaum: A woman from Athani has lodged a police complaint against a lawyer who handled her divorce case, alleging that the latter blackmailed her demanding sexual favours. She claimed that when she asked for the alimony papers which the lawyer had kept with him after the divorce case was settled, he demanded sexual favours and also threatened her.

The Athani police have registered a case against lawyer Ashok Gulgave soon after the woman lodged a complaint. The woman got married in 2005 and approached the court through Gulgave for a divorce three years after her wedding.

After the final hearing of the case on February 25 this year, the court ordered her husband to pay alimony of Rs 1.5 lakh for clearing the case. Since the, the lawyer has been allegedly harassing the woman contending that the case was yet to be settled and alimony would be given to her later.

On June 1, the woman said the lawyer spoke to her on phone asking her to meet him and collect her alimony. The lawyer was not available when she went to meet him. She later spoke to him on phone asking him to pay her money deducting his fees. Recently, the lawyer decided to pay a mere Rs 35,000 to the woman.

When she demanded the entire alimony, the lawyer allegedly demanded sexual favours. The woman lodged a complaint against the lawyer.

Next: Ill heath drives girl to end life

Ill heath drives girl to end life

Chennai: A 22-year-old girl who immolated herself, alle­gedly depressed over he­r ill- health, died while he­r elder brother, who tri­ed to save her is being treated with severe burn injuries near Royape­tta­h o­n Thursday.

Sindhuja, a B.com graduate worked in a private company in Siruseri IT Park, police said. Her bro­th­er, Bharathiraja an eng­ineering graduate, and the­ir family lived at Pra­ssana Vinayagar Koil str­eet in Royapettah.

The gi­rl had been suffering from ch­icken pox for the last tw­o weeks and used to co­mplain of unbearable he­a­t and pain in the body, p­ol­ice investigations reve­al­ed.

On Thur­sda­y mo­r­ni­ng at around 7 am, she en­tered the bathroom wi­th a kerosene bottle, dou­sed and immolated her­self. He­a­ring her screams, her elder brother Bhar­ath­iraja tried to save her and suffered burn inju­ries.

Both were taken to the Kilpauk medical college hospital for treatment. The girl who suffered severe burns succ­um­bed to her injuries, wh­­ile her brother is in a critical condition, police said.

Techie harasses wife, held

Chennai: A 31-year-old software engineer was arrested for allegedly harassing his wife, demanding dowry in Tambaram on Wednesday.

Police arrested Muthukumar based on a complaint from his wife Madhumathi, 27, a software professional herself. Muthukumar is a resident of Mookambikai Nagar in Tambaram while his wife is from Mudichoor West Tambaram.

According to police, the couple married two months ago after four years of courtship; differences of opinion started cropping up soon.

"We tried to convince both about the need for mutual give and take in a relationship like marriage and also told them to iron out differences of opinion by counselling them.

But it looks as if they are not ready to live together again," an official from the Tambaram all women's police station said.

Next: Two smuggle heroin, get 10 yrs in jail

Two smuggle heroin, get 10 yrs in jail

Chennai: A special court in Chennai on Thursday awarded 10-years of imprisonment to two persons on charge of smuggling heroin to Sri Lanka. Principal judge for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) cases C. Chinnappan also slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on them.

Following a tip off, personnel of Narcotics Control Bureau arrested S Edmand, 26 and M Chiti, 55 at Poonamalle checkpost on March 7, 2006.

They were travelling from Bengaluru to Chennai on an Omni bus. Police seized two kg of drug from them. They attempted to smuggle heroin to Sri Lanka. The NCB alleged that the due were regularly the smuggling banned drugs and heroin to Sri Lanka.

As the prosecution made the case, the judge awarded 10-years of imprisonment to Edmand and Chiti and slapped them a fine of Rs 1 lakh each.

Next: HC orders probe into fraud by TNHB

HC orders probe into fraud by TNHB

J.Stalin | DC

Chennai: The Madras high court has ordered a CB-CID probe into the fraud committed by officials of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board (TNHB) in collusion with land-grabbers, executing a sale deed in favour of a dead person.

Allowing a petition from M. Fathima Beevi, wife of the deceased allottee, Justice K. K. Sasidharan directed the authorities to cancel the sale deed and execute a fresh one in favour of the petitioner within three weeks, besides taking disciplinary action against the officials of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board.

“This petition is a classic example of how the officials of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board conduct the affairs of the instrumentality of the state and the modus operandi of black sheep working on the board,” the judge observed.

The petitioner’s husband, Sheik Salahudeen, was allotted an MIG plot in Manali by the Tamil Nadu Housing Board in March 1989.

After his death in October 1996, the petitioner settled her dues through monthly installments and approached the authorities to execute the sale deed in her favour.

Her suspicions were aroused when they kept avoiding her, and applied for an encumbrance certificate which indicated that a sale deed had been executed in favour of her husband.

The petitioner, convinced that her husband had been impersonated, asked the authorities to cancel the fraudulent sale deed, but they took no action.

It was clear that the officials of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board assisted in the forgery and impersonation, the Tamil Nadu Housing Board submitting that the police had begun criminal proceedings against them.

The executive engineer said casually that after conclusion of the criminal proceedings initiated by the police, action would be taken to cancel the sale deed already registered and to issue a fresh one in favour of the petitioner.

The petitioner was now 56 years old. The Tamil Nadu Housing Board had wanted her to wait for years together under the premise that the investigation was pending.

The indifferent attitude adopted by the board would only encourage land grabbing, the judge said. The officials of the board would continue to cheat people if such illegal activities were permitted and immediate criminal and disciplinary action were not initiated, the judge added.