CHENNAI: Egmore police on Monday detained a civil contractor in connection with the murder of 67-year-old Oncologist, Dr Rohini Premkumari, at her bungalow in Egmore a day ago. Police sources said that the contractor was employed to fix tiles in the vacant area behind the house and there was a dispute over the payment.
“The intruders entered the house through the back door. We have detained the contractor for now. But, other angles are also being probed,” said an investigating officer.
The sexagenarian doctor, a widow, was sharing the palatial house with her 87-year-old mother, Subadhra Nair, also a doctor. Subadhra had called up a relative, Parasuraman, after Rohini, who usually serves breakfast failed to turn up on Sunday, well into the morning.
Rohini was found dead with her limbs tied up. Preliminary investigations strongly indicate the role of the contractor in the murder, a police officer said. However, police are also probing from a property dispute angle. “The house on Gandhi-Irwin road was only recently transferred to the name of Rohini. It was registered in the name of her late father,” said a relative of the family, requesting anonymity. Police said that there has been a dispute which has been pending in the courts for more than a decade now and efforts are on to investigate the stakeholders involved.
“We are making good progress. It is only a matter of time before we arrest the murderer(s),” a senior police officer told Express.