Chennai: A week after the severed body of a man was found near a canal in Mogappair; police have arrested a butcher in connection with the murder. The deceased man has been identified as Babu (45), a tailor. Since the day he was reported missing, a butcher who was working in a meat shop nearby was also missing, following which police zeroed in on the murderer.
Mohammad Rasool (22) was picked up from a hideout in Pallavaram during the early hours of Sunday. Investigations revealed that the butcher had murdered the tailor after an argument in a financial dispute.
On September 26, Corporation staff was clearing the storm water drain behind the fish market on 3rd block in Mogappair (west) when they recovered a gunny bag with a body inside. Police secured the headless torso and moved it to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMCH) for autopsy.
Even as Nolambur police were struggling to ascertain the identity of the headless torso at their disposal, the severed body parts, an arm and a lower limb were recovered on subsequent days, following which police intensified investigations.
“We did not have any leads. The way in which the body was severed made us suspect that the murderer would have been a butcher,” said Additional Commissioner (North), H.M. Jayaram. As suspected, a butcher working in a meat shop in the area had shut shop since the day the body was found following which police traced him.
The butcher Mohammad Rasool confessed that he had murdered the tailor as he kept on pestering him for money after a drinking session on the night of September 25. Babu is a resident of Tiruverkadu. He had separated from his family and was living in Mogappair. He ran a small tailoring store next to Rasool’s meat store and the duo used to get together for a drink after work, police said. The accused was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.
