Woman lawyer kills man seeking help to ‘live’ with maid

N Suresh Bharadwaj went missing on June 21. Though well-off, he remained unmarried and was the only caretaker of his two aged aunts who lived with him.

Adyar police, who had initially registered a missing case and conducted inquiries, found that Suresh had left his mobile phone with his car driver before he went missing. “After tracing phone calls and CCTV camera details, we found that Suresh had gone to meet an advocate Preethi in Adyar. When we interrogated her, she agreed to have met him but did not disclose further details,” a police officer said.

When Preethi also went missing after the inquiry, police grew suspicious and traced her mobile phone calls to a history sheeter Kudimi Prakash (30) around the same time and rounded him up. During inquiry, Prakash confessed to the murder. “Suresh had hired a 40-year-old housemaid to take care of his two aunts and allegedly demanded physical favours from her. She refused to oblige and complained to advocate Preethi about Suresh, who took advantage of the situation and received Rs 65 lakh from the victim with the promise of uniting him with the maid,” an officer said.

As the maid was unaware of the ransom, Preethi suspected that Suresh might find out about her ploy and killed him with help of Prakash and his associates. “The victim had been taken a few nautical miles into the sea off Kasimedu coast and killed,” the officer added. While Preethi is still missing, police have arrested six people in connection with the murder.