Chennai: Ramkumar, the suspect in the murder of software professional Swathi, was remanded to judicial custody on Monday after being brought to Chennai by road in an ambulance from Tirunelveli. Cops moved him to the city with a transit warrant issued by a judicial magistrate from Tirunelveli and the warrant mandated him to be produced before the jurisdictional XIV metropolitan magistrate court (Egmore) within the stipulated time.
At around 4.40 am, the cops brought him to the Government Royapettah Hospital (GRH) in an ambulance amid tight security and admitted him there for further treatment. Considering his health condition, the cops requested the XIII metropolitan court magistrate S. Gopinathan, who is holding additional charge of XIV metropolitan court as well, to visit the GRH to record the statement of the suspect in person. Conceding the request, the magistrate visited the hospital around 11.30 am, and remanded the suspect to judicial custody for 15 days. Sources said cops had moved the court seeking the custody of the suspect for two weeks to gather more evidence in the case.
Police sources said that he was shifted to the city only after he was certified fit by the doctors of Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital (TVMCH). “We would wait for the doctors here to declare him fit to be discharged. There are some medical procedures that were to be completed prior to his discharge. We would then move him to Puzhal prison as per law,” said a police official who is part of the investigation.
The cops had sanitised the corridors and paths leading to the ward in which Ram Kumar is being treated. Armed police had been posted as well complementing the local police involved in security. Ram Kumar attempted to take his life when the cops surrounded him at his residence in Meenakshipuram in Sengottah, Tirunelveli district. S. Swathi, an Infosys employee, and resident of South Gangai Amman Koil street, Choolaimedu, was hacked to death on Platform No. 2, in Nungambakkam Railway Station, on June 24.
