COVID-19 patient whose body was found in Chennai GH murdered by sanitation worker

The Chennai police on Tuesday solved the case of a COVID-19 patient who had gone missing from the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) in Chennai in May and whose decomposed body was later found on the eighth floor of the hospital building. The police investigation revealed that the 41-year-old woman was murdered by a contract sanitation worker of the hospital and her body dumped on the eighth floor of the building.  

Sunitha from Tambaram, wife of Mowli who was a professor from Andhra Pradesh, was admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 treatment on May 21. She, however, went missing on May 23. Several days later the decomposed body of a woman later identified as Sunitha was found on the eight floor of RGGGH on June 8. Her body was sent for post-mortem. 

Based on Mowli’s complaint, the police first registered a case under Section 174 (suspicious death) of Criminal Procedure Code. The police had initially denied a possibility of foul play but they expressed doubt over how the victim moved to the eighth floor of the hospital building, reported DT Next. 

However, when the post-mortem report revealed strangulation marks on the neck of the victim, the police intensified its investigation, reported The Hindu. The police then tracked and located the suspect using the victim’s missing mobile phone. Rathi Devi (40) of Tiruvottiyur, a contract sanitation staff working at RGGGH, was arrested for murdering Sunitha. 

According to the police, she allegedly confessed to having committed the crime, and had planned to rob Sunitha. She had taken the victim on a wheelchair to the eighth floor on the pretext of getting a scan. She then strangled her to death, robbing the victim of Rs 9500 in cash and her mobile phone.   

The murder took place at a time when the hospital was seeing a high caseload. Rathi has been remanded to judicial custody.