CHENNAI: Four days after a woman vendor was hacked to death at Saidapet Railway Station, five people, including her sister, were arrested by the Government Railway Police (GRP) on Saturday. Four knives were recovered from them.
According to the police, the arrested accused are V Sakthi alias Sakthivel (23), S Jegadeesh (23), R Surya (19), Y Johnson (19) and M Nagavalli (23), the sister of Rajeshwari. The police said all of them were also vendors on trains.
Speaking to the media at a press meet held at Tambaram Railway Station, GRP, Chennai, SP, Ponram said, “Since there were no CCTV cameras at the station we could not identify them initially, but we used conventional methods such as inquiries and groundwork to identify them.”
The gang attacked Rajeshwari as she had threatened to kill Nagavalli and her lover Sakthivel since they had eloped a month ago. Fearing for her life, Nagavalli hired the gang to kill her sister. Nagavalli is married to another man and they have two children, said the police.
“Rajeswari had threatened the gang with police action a few months ago when she saw them allegedly assaulting a man. We suspect that this could also be a reason for the attack,” a senior GRP officer said. All angles are being looked into, said the police. The police said Sakthivel and Jegadeesh each have a pending case against them. After being produced before a magistrate, all five accused were remanded to judicial custody on Sunday.
On July 19, around 8:30 pm, Rajeshwari, who was selling snacks and fruits on the platform of Saidapet Railway Station was hacked by a four-member gang. She was rushed to Government Royapettah Hospital, where she died.