Residents of Indira Nagar First Avenue, a posh locality in Chennai, woke up to a shocking scene on Monday, January 26. A blood-stained sack was found in front of an upscale apartment complex in the area.
In the police investigation that followed, it was revealed that the sack contained the dead body of a migrant worker from Bihar, Gaurav Kumar (24), who had come to Chennai only a week ago with his family. What was worse, it was found that his wife Minukumari and two-year-old son, who had come to Chennai with him, had also been murdered and their bodies disposed of in different locations.
On Tuesday evening, the body of the child was recovered from the Buckingham Canal near the Indira Nagar MRTS station. After a three-day search, Minukumari’s body was found in the Perungudi dumpyard on January 30.
Police say that three persons have been arrested for the crime – Satyender, alias Santosh Kumar (30), Lalit Yadav (40), and Vikas Kumar (24), all of them migrant workers.
Gaurav had arrived in the city on January 21 looking for work. Satyender was his acquaintance and worked as a watchman at the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) in Taramani. Gaurav and his family had been staying on the fourth floor of the ICT. On the night of January 25, the three accused and Gaurav had been drinking when a fight broke out, reportedly after the accused attempted to sexually assault Minukumari.
The gruesome nature of the crime and the manner in which the bodies were disposed has residents and those working in the neighbourhood terrified and concerned about their safety.
“As soon as I heard about the incident, my hands and legs started to shiver. They even killed a two-year-old child. My heart races hearing all this; I feel scared to talk to people or give any information. If someone asks for things like my house address or something, I feel scared now,” says Mala, a sanitation worker.
Mala cleans the streets in the area from 6 am to 2 pm. Then she works as a domestic worker in one of the houses nearby till 7 pm.
“I hear about these things on the news and it’s scary. We come here to work, but when the conditions are like this, it feels like we can’t trust anyone. What can we say about the police? They themselves have no security. We have to look after ourselves,” says another woman working as a housekeeper in the area.
The crime and the investigation
The first breakthrough in the investigation came from CCTV footage in Indira Nagar, which showed two of the accused transporting the sack and dumping it in the area.
“If the sack was not found here, then it would have been just another missing case, another unidentified body. They threw the kid in the Cooum, but this man was thrown here. If his body was also thrown in the Cooum or somewhere else, then nobody would’ve known,” says Giri, a roadside vendor who has been selling coconuts in the area for the past 20 years.
“If there was no evidence, what would have happened? Look at what happened in the Dashwanth case, where a child and a woman were killed. The court said there wasn’t enough evidence, so the accused roams free,” he points out.
He is referring to the Chennai techie who had been on death row for sexually assaulting and murdering a seven-year-old child in 2017 and later killing his own mother. Dashwanth was freed by the Supreme Court, which said that the prosecution had “miserably failed to prove the vital circumstances.”
Indeed, Indira Nagar being an upmarket neighbourhood with functioning cameras was crucial in nabbing the accused.
On the other hand, the area behind the Indira Nagar MRTS station where the Buckingham Canal runs black and pungent, is completely isolated, with small hills of accumulated waste attracting stray cattle and dogs. This is where the child’s body was found.
The station itself is a large, colourful building on the side of the broad four-lane Rajiv Gandhi Expressway. The outside of the building is vibrant with green, yellow, red, and blue graffiti and three smiling faces – a man, a woman, and a child. Inside, however, it is desolate and poorly lit. The station does have a few cameras.
Right opposite the station is the ICT. It is speculated that this is the site of the crime.
This area is home to other educational institutions as well – the Tamil Institute, the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) – and government hostels.
According to the police, Minukumari’s body was found right across the wall from ACJ.
‘It’s scary when it happens so close to us.’
ACJ students say they never thought the city was unsafe until they saw the news about the triple murder.
“After dinner, we used to go for walks in the area. I often go for runs alone too. I have never felt unsafe in Chennai. But now we tell each other to go out only in groups or to make sure someone knows when you’re out. It is obviously scary when it happens so close to us,” says an ACJ student from Nepal who did not want to be named.
Rithwika Datta, another student from Kolkata, also feels the same way. “I got to know the news yesterday morning. The whole area now feels unsafe; there isn’t proper lighting, too. It feels risky to go out alone. My friends have warned me not to go out alone. The faculty also told us to not go out alone at night.”
Another student from Maharashtra said she had experienced catcalling and obnoxious gestures from passersby while she was out walking in the area.
Students at ICT have been directed by the administration to keep mum and did not want to speak to the media.
As with all heinous crimes, this time too residents called for instant justice.
“They killed a child and a woman. They should be made to suffer throughout their life. They should be given harsh punishment,” Giri, the coconut seller, says.
Rithwika, however, asks a much simpler question. “From the time this incident happened, we have lost our right to walk along the road because we are terrified. When we move here, don’t the government and others have a responsibility to keep us safe?”
When approached, the Adyar police refused to comment. On January 29, the Greater Chennai Police put out a statement giving basic information about the incident and arrests.