On Sunday, the Chennai police arrested the second suspect in the murder of a 23-year-old woman who was found dead at a lodge in Mylapore on December 15.
E Nivedhita was found dead in a lodge at Picnic Plaza in Mylapore. Two days later, police arrested a mechanic, K Suresh Kumar of Alangulam near Madurai. The second accused was absconding.
Police told The Times of India that during interrogating Suresh Kumar, he had told police that they visited the lodge and murdered the woman. They took away her mobile phone and gold chain.
Moreover, police found the chain from Suresh Kumar and the mobile phone from Subash. The second suspect works as a load worker in Madurai. Subash and Suresh Kumar became friends few years ago. When Nivedhita invited Suresh to meet her in Chennai, he accepted the request and Subash accompanied him, reported TOI.
Police said that Suresh first visited the lodge and later Subash accompanied him in the evening and they both strangulated Nivedhita.
Nivedhita’s father Ethiraj, a scrap paper vendor at Mylapore was the first to file a missing complaint, after which police began investigation. Meanwhile, at the lodge, staff kept knocking the door but no one opened it. They later broke-opened the door to find Nivedhita dead and immediately informed police.
Police went through the call records and found that she was last talking to Suresh Kumar on the phone. During the investigation, police also found that she had first asked Suresh to meet her in Bangalore but he refused. Later she booked a room at a lodge in Picnic Plaza.
Suresh Kumar had befriended Nivedhita few years ago. Police had arrested Suresh Kumar on December 17 from his house in Madurai and brought him to Chennai for questioning, and a court remanded him in judicial custody.
Nivedhita, who was living in Veera Perumal Koil Street in Mylapore, was last seen by her family on December 14 evening.