CHENNAI: A day after an 80-year-old retired teacher was found murdered at her house in Irumbuliyur, the police have arrested the victim’s grandson.
Police said the suspect was angered by the elderly woman’s refusal to give him the ATM card of her bank account. The senior citizen, S Preetha Madhuram, a retired school teacher, was found strangulated in her house at Perumal Koil Street, where she was staying alone, in the afternoon after her daughter Shanthana Kumari had left for work. Nearly three sovereigns of gold jewels Madhuram was wearing were also missing.
Police said a detailed investigation revealed that Madhuram’s grandson M Samuel David Raj (32) had visited Madhuram on Monday afternoon. “We were grilling every one who could have possibly visited the victim and zeroed in on Samuel. Initially he maintained that he never visited his grandmother on Monday. But when verified about his claims about his whereabouts at that time, it became clear to us that he was lying,” said police.
After detailed interrogation, Samuel confessed to the crime, claimed police, adding that he was angered by the refusal of Madhuram to give him the ATM card. “He usually gets money from Madhuram for his expenses as she and her husband, who was a retired air force employee, together get a handsome pension. But on Monday, he wanted his grandmother to handover him the ATM card of her bank account. But she feared that he would withdraw the entire balance in the account and refused,” said the officer.