Bengaluru: The East division police have cracked the murder of an elderly couple, within 24 hours after it came to light, and have arrested a 35-year-old electrician in this connection. Investigations revealed that it was a case of murder for gain.
The accused has been identified as Premchand Jain B, a resident of P&T Colony near Bilal Masjid in K.G. Halli. The other accused, Chandrashekhar, 37, a resident of Begumpet in Hyderabad, is absconding.
According to the police, the deceased couple Parvatharaj, 61, and Chandrakala, 55, who were residing on Coles Road in Frazer Town, knew Jain from the past 15 years. As their only son was in US, Jain helped the couple in day-to-day works and was close to the family.
“Jain knew Chandrashekhar, who worked at a shop in Chickpet, for the last four years. Both used to visit live band joints and squandered lot of money there. They were in dire need of money and Jain, who knew that Parvatharaj was well off, hatched a plot to murder the couple and rob them.
Jain went to Hyderabad to discuss the plan with Chandrashekhar, who agreed to it. Both came to the city by flight on Thursday, the police said. “As per the plan, Jain had contacted Parvatharaj, who used to lend money for interest, on Thursday and had told him that his friend was in need of money and asked him to arrange Rs 50,000, to which Parvatharaj agreed.
On Friday noon, Parvatharaj contacted Jain, as they were facing some problem regarding the water connection, but Jain did not answer the call. However, the assailants went to the couple’s house around 3.30 pm to execute their plan. As they went inside, Parvatharaj took Jain to the ground floor to check the water connection. Before going down, Jain passed a message to Chandrashekhar to finish Chandrakala, the police said.
“As soon as Jain and Parvatharaj left, Chandrashekhar attacked the woman with his knife, stabbed her four times and she died. Jain told Parvatharaj to wait at the ground floor and went to the third floor under the pretext of checking the w ater supply. As he did not return for a while, Parvatharaj went up to check. As soon as he came, one of the accused held him, while the other stabbed him multiple times and murdered him,” the police said.
“After the murder, the duo took Rs 50,000 in cash that the couple had kept ready for Chandrashekhar and robbed the gold jewellery worn by Chandrakala. Before leaving, they slit the wrists of both hands of the couple to ensure that they would not survive. Later, they locked the house from outside and escaped,” the police added.
Call records provided clue
“When the investigations started, we zeroed in on the last call made by Parvatharaj to Jain. There were exchange of calls between them several times, but after the last call, Jain had not called him back, raising our suspicion.
Jain was found on Monday morning at his house. When asked why he did not go to see the bodies of the couple who were close to him, he said he was very disturbed on watching the news on TV and thus did not want to go there. He was asked to explain what all he did on Friday, but did not give a convincing answer. When grilled and he confessed to the murder. The hunt is on to nab Chandrashekhar, who is absconding,” an official said.
