In what has sent shockwaves across the state of Tamil Nadu, the accused in the brutal murder of Chennai Infosys techie Swathi, Ramkumar, has allegedly killed himself. Ramkumar is reported to have killed himself at the Puzhal prison, where he was lodged while undergoing trial. Police sources say the incident happened at 4pm.
He was immediately taken to the Royapettah general hospital in Chennai where he was delcared brought dead.
A doctor at the hospital told TNM, "He has wounds to his chest and left side of mouth, it looks like an electric shock. He was brought in at 5:30pm, and was brought dead. We registered death at 5:45pm."
The police officer investigating the murder case, Shankar, confirmed to TNM that he was brought dead.
Police personnel outside Royapettah hospital
His family members have been informed and they are on their way to Chennai.
Meanwhile, Ramkumar's lawyer Ramarajan has blamed the judiciary for his death. It is a murder not a suicide, he told the media. VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan has asked for a CBI enquiry. As per procedure, a complaint will be filed at a local police station on Ramkumar's death. The autopsy will be conducted in the presence of a judicial magistrate.
Ramkumar was arrested in July for allegedly hacking to death Swathi, an IT emplooyee in the Nungambakkam Railway station in the early hours of June 24.
Ramkumar lived in on the second floor of AS Mansion in Chennai’s Choolaimedu for three months, less than a kilometre from Swati’s house on Gangai Amman Koil Street. The Chennai police arrested him from his house in Meenakshipuram in Thirunelveli district on July 1.
(Ramkumar's room in hostel or mansion he lived in Chennai)
Ramukumar, an engineer by training had come to Chennai looking for a job. He is accused of murdering Swati, a young techie on Nungambakkam railway platform in the early hours of on June 24. According to the police, Ramkumar had been stalking her for several days and had killed her because she had turned him down.
In August, Ramkumar’s mother Pushpam claimed that her son was innocent and that police had arrested her son to guard the real accused.
In her petition with the Madras High Court, she also alleged that the special police team that went to Karnataka in connection with the probe, had seized the sim card and laptop of 24-year-old Infosys techie S Swathi, which showed she may have been murdered due to a love affair.