BENGALURU: LUCK ran out for a 22-year-old fabricator, who allegedly murdered and robbed an elderly woman, when a pair of slippers he accidentally left at the crime scene brought the police to his doorstep.
Adugodi police on Tuesday arrested Syed Nadeem in connection with the murder of 65-year-old Gajalakshmi, a scrap dealer, at Samatha Nagar around six days back.
According to the police, Nadeem knew the victim for a long time as he used to live at EWS quarters behind Gajalakshmi’s scrap shop. Nadeem used to work in a welding shop nearby. Later, he worked in Mumbai and Vijayawada, and then returned to Bengaluru and got a job as a welder in a shop in the vicinity. During this time, he used to visit Gajalakshmi to sell scrap materials, police said.
The victim used to stay with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, but used to sleep in her scrap shop every day. Her husband and son had died. On June 13, he quit his job and hatched a plan to rob her. On June 16, around 2.30 am, he broke into the shop, but Gajalakshmi woke up. To stop her from alerting others, he bludgeoned her to death with a hollow brick, police said.
Nadeem then stole `6,800 and fled. Later, he changed his blood-soaked clothes and took an autorickshaw to Shivajinagar where he bought new clothes and shoes. On the same evening, he treated his friends with liquor, according to the police.
During investigation, police recovered a pair of slippers, which were scorched.
They suspected that the slippers were scorched by welding sparks and began to gather information of welding workers in the vicinity. Police learnt that Nadeem was missing from the area. So, they rounded up a few other suspects. During interrogation, one of the suspects, who happened to be Nadeem, confessed to the crime.