THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police team probing the murder of Vinitha Mol at a plant nursery at Ambalamukku last Sunday took the suspect Rajendran to Kanyakumari district for evidence collection on Saturday. The team recovered four gold chains, including the one used by the slain woman, from a financial firm at Anjugramam near Kanyakumari.
Rajendran was also taken to a lodge at Kavalkinaru where he had been hiding before arrest. The police said he was accused of committing four other murders and was “wanted” by the Tamil Nadu police. On Friday, an identification parade was conducted as two autorickshaw drivers and a two-wheeler rider were witnesses. They identified him and Rajendran too confessed.
“Rajendran, who was out on bail, had been working at a tea shop at Ambalamukku for the past one month. He committed the murder for money and without provocation. He mortgaged the four sovereign gold chain for Rs 32,000. We recovered the chain and took back Rajendran to Thiruvananthapuram. The court granted police his custody for further questioning for seven days,” said V Sajikumar, Peroorkada inspector of police.
The police said Rajendran was active in online trading where he used to sell stolen items. He was accused of murdering a Customs officer and his wife under Aralvaimozhi police station limits and was also involved in two other murder cases registered in the Kanyakumari police station.All murders were committed during robbery attempts, the police said. He had a slew of other serious criminal cases registered against him in various stations, including Ambattur, Thoothukudi and Tirupur. Being a hardcore criminal, he always carried a knife with him to commit heinous crimes at the drop of a hat.
The police have found that Rajendran was a post-graduate in economics. He then went on to pursue an MBA course online. It was also revealed that he was regularly trading online with the stolen money. The money he got after pledging the gold chain of Vinitha too was used for this too. The police are clueless as to why Rajendran, who is highly educated, worked at a tea shop. Rajendran selected Sunday for the robbery due to the lockdown-like restrictions enforced on the day.
At Ambalamukku, he first targeted a woman who was travelling alone. When he saw other people nearby, he moved ahead and saw the plant shop. He picked Vineetha as his target after spotting her watering plants at the nursery near Ambala Nagar at Ambalamukku. After ensuring that Vinitha was alone, Rajesh went inside pretending to be a customer and attacked her.