Chennai: A 72-year old woman staying alone at home was reportedly murdered for her valuables at her flat at Ram Mansion on Pantheon Road in Egmore, on Thursday night.
A smartphone and a pair of earrings were reported missing. Police said the deceased Sharadha, (72), a native of Thrissur, had moved to Chennai with her niece, Dhanya, 20, pursuing higher education here in a college on College road.
The aunt had called her niece at around 8.30 pm. As Dhanya’s attempt to reach Sharadha over her mobile failed at about 9 pm, she rushed home from her friend’s place in Teynampet.
The door was, unusually, latched from outside and Dhanya let herself in only to find Sharadha dead with her throat slit and the gold earrings missing from the body.
A shattered Dhanya ran downstairs from her 3rd floor flat and alerted the police control room, besides seeking assistance from the watchman and others present.
The forensic bureau lifted fingerprints from the crime scene. A sniffer dog climbed down three flights of stairs before losing the scent of the assailant.
Sharadha, who was suffering heart problems, would take a woman sweeper, working in a photo-studio in the ground floor, along with her on hospital visits.
“Their door had a magic-eye and Sharadha would never let in strangers. The deceased would take the assistance of a conservancy staff working in the photo studio to go to hospitals among other things, and she is the only person the family looks up to for assistance”, said a neighbor, who wished not to be named.
Though the CCTV cameras installed in the complex by shop owners in the building would be shut down after business hours, the cops have collected all the available footage to identify the movement of strangers to the complex.
The 9-storey apartment complex, which has 72 flats, also houses a dozen business establishments. The third floor has four flats - two of them were rented by a logistics firm and the other rented by a group of star hotel staff. The logistics firm closed for the day at around 7.15 pm.
Cops have enumerated the list of all tenants and the possible visitors list to narrow down on the suspect(s). Sharadha is a widow whose two sons live in neighbouring Kerala and is an elder sister of Dhanya’s father Divakar who is working in Gulf.
The body had been handed over to kin who took it to Thrissur, and Sharadha’s brother Divakar is already on his way there.
