Advocate wanted for murder is ex-IAS officer’s daughter

As per the case, Suresh had lent about Rs 4 lakh to his housemaid with an intention to seek sexual favours. But with the favour failing to come through, he reportedly asked her to return the money.

Following this, the housemaid, through the woman working at Preethi’s house, approached her for help. But Preethi used the woman to extract as much as Rs 65 lakh from Suresh Bharadwaj on the promise of making the housemaid live with him.

Thereafter, in a bid to get rid of Suresh, she sent the six persons and they took him a few nautical miles into the sea off Kasimedu coast and murdered him.

The police said that Preethi is the daughter of a retired IAS officer, but refused to divulge more about her background.

On Friday, the police received information that Preethi was staying at her friend’s house. But she managed to escape from there before the police could reach the spot. Preethi, who is in her late 30s, separated from her husband and was living with her daughter in Adyar.

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.