Chennai: City police on Sunday detained Manikandan, accomplice of Dhashwanth who was arrested in connection with the murder of his mother ten days ago. The 24-year-old, who was earlier arrested for the rape and murder of a 7-year-old in February, was granted bail in September after which he murdered his mother at their residence in Kundrathur on December 2.
During the course of investigations, police found that he had acquainted with history sheeters during his time in prison and had handed over his mother's jewels to one of them. Police initially detained two men- James and David. Dashwanth had handed over the gold jewellery to them to help him get money by pawning it, police sources said. James was detained under the Goondas act while David was arrested in connection with chain snatching cases. The duo had confessed to be contacted by Dashwanth and told cops that they introduced him to another person, Manikandan.
Manikandan was in possession of the jewels stolen from Dhashwanth's mother, Sarala. Meanwhile, police teams traced Dhashwant to Mumbai and quite a drama happened - he escaped from police custody with handcuffs and was arrested again a day later- before he was brought to the City and lodged in Puzhal. Meanwhile, on Sunday, a special team rounded up Manikandan from his sister's residence in T Nagar. A resident of Red Hills, he has several cases of waylaying, chain snatching against him. Police sources said that he had pledged all the jewellery and efforts are on to recover them. Further investigations are on.
