Class 8 student murders senior citizen to buy video games

Chennai, June 13: Police have arrested a class 8 student along with two others for murdering of a 69-year-old woman and throwing her charred body in the bushes near Thiruperumbudhu. The boy had allegedly devised a plan to kill her for money to buy video games.

Mahesh (name changed) of Ambattur studying in a private school visited his aunt Saritha's house in Eakaadu village near Tiruvallur. He asked Saritha to buy him a video game that cost Rs 8,000 but she told him she did not have the money. Mahesh and Saritha had invited their neighbour, Rajammal, to their house on Sunday afternoon. Mahesh and Saritha strangled the woman using a towel and smothered her to death before taking away her five sovereign gold chain and earstuds. Saritha then informed her husband Baskar, who was away at work. Initially, they decided to bury Rajammal's body behind their house, but decided against it after they watched a TV show that telecast how the police crackdown a three-year old murder in Villupuram.

On Sunday night, Baskar and Mahesh wrapped Rajammal's body in a gunny bag and took it to Sengadu village near Thiruperumbudhur on a scooty. They dumped the body in the bushes, doused petrol and set it on fire.

Rajammal's husband Jayaseelan had died due to illness several years ago. Their son Daniel, a businessman in Purasawalkam, tried to reach his mother and inquired with the neighbours. Meanwhile, Thiruperumbudhur police teams narrowed down on Baskar and Saritha after some villagers had told police that they saw the old woman entering Saritha's house on Sunday afternoon. The police took Daniel to the morgue in the government hospital in Tiruvallur, where he identified his mother's body.

Baskar and Saritha were arrested after they confessed the murder. "We also arrested the boy," said Thiruperunbudhur police inspector M Ramamurthy. Police recovered the stolen gold chain and earstuds from Baskar's house and seized Baskar's scooty. Mahesh will sent to the juvenile home soon, he said.

On Monday morning, police recovered the charred body of a woman in Sengadu near Thiruperumbudhur. Based on the complaint of the village administrative officer (VAO) Amsavalli, police registered a case and arrested three accused.