Chennai: It has been more than a fortnight since the brutal murder of pawnbroker Heera Ram (54) who was attacked inside his shop on busy Arcot Road in Virugambakkam on Deepavali day (October 22).
The man died later that night. However, the K.K. Nagar police are yet to make much headway in connection with the case.
A few suspects were interrogated, says an investigating officer who claimed that the family of the deceased did not cooperate with the investigations initially.
Also, there was no CCTV camera installed in the facility which is hampering the investigation as the grabs obtained from the one nearby have not provided any conclusive leads so far, according to a senior police officer.
Anand, the son of the victim, Heera Ram’s son, who reached the shop two hours after the incident on that fateful night, claims otherwise. “We gave all available details to the police. Our customary practices warranted that we perform the last rites at our native state, Rajasthan. So, we were away for a week,” said Anand, who is studying to be a chartered accountant.
The shop has remained closed since then. The police initially detained a suspect, the last person to do business with Heera Ram, according to the ledgers in the store.
Anand said the person came to recover a half-sovereign gold ring, which he had pledged about a year ago at the shop. “The records show that he had visited the shop around five times. But the Alwarthirunagar address he provided to my father turned out to be a fake,” according to Anand.
Around 6 kg of gold jewellery and 5 kg of silver articles, worth more than Rs 1 crore, were looted from the shop by the attackers who have managed to elude the cops so far. Heera Ram kept the shop open on Deepavali while most of the others were shut. The K.K. Nagar police are sifting through the clientele list of the deceased to eliminate possible suspects and are hopeful of finding the criminals soon.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peravai (traders union) on Friday approached the city police commissioner’s office seeking efficient probe into incidents of armed attack on shopkeepers and burglaries which remain unsolved.
Heera Ram’s murder is one among the many which police handle callously, accuse the traders.
Citing an almost two-decade-old case wherein around 8 kg of gold and 12 kg of silver were looted from a pawnshop at Perambakkam in November 1996, Mr T. Vellaiyan, state president of the union, says, “The accused are yet to be arrested in that case and the case is similar in many such burglaries which the police seem to take lightly.”
Mr Vellaiyan demanded that a special cell be constituted by the state police to deal with the armed robberies and to recover the stolen property. He also accused a few police officers of the city treating pawnbrokers shabbily. Accompanying him were members of the Pawn Broker & Jewellery Traders Wing who submitted a 15-point charter to the police. The traders also submitted a list of unsolved burglaries and attacks on pawnbrokers.
