One held as elderly man murdered, gold jewellery stolen

The police have arrested a 35-year-old housekeeping worker for murdering his co-worker at the latter’s house in Purasawalkam and looting gold and silver jewellery.

The deceased, identified as Balakrishnan, 61, had been working at a textile shop in Anna Nagar for the past three years. 

On Tuesday night, Vignesh, Balakrishnan’s nephew,  went to the house and found the door locked from inside. He peeped through a window and saw Balakrishnan lying dead in a pool of blood. 

Based on an alert, the Vepery police registered a case  and found that about five sovereigns of gold jewellery and some silver articles were missing from the house. CCTV footage from the area showed an unidentified man entering the house empty-handed and leaving with a bag. Based on the footage, the police identified the suspect as Shyam Madhav, 35, a native of Bihar, who worked at the same textile shop.

The police arrested Shyam from his rented accommodation in Anna Nagar. During interrogation, he allegedly confessed that he had befriended Balakrishnan and had been visiting his house frequently to help him with chores. 

On the day of the incident, Shyam allegedly went to Balakrishnan’s house and consumed alcohol with him. After the victim became intoxicated, he stabbed him to death, looted gold jewellery and silver items, and fled.

The police said the accused had returned to his room and was preparing to flee to Bihar when officers arrested him and recovered the stolen property.