Chennai man strangulates elderly woman to death with charging cable to rob her gold earrings; arrested

CHENNAI: City police arrested a 34-year-old man today on charges of murder after a probe into the death of a 78-year-old woman at her Vyasarpadi home revealed that she had been strangulated to death.

The accused, T Murali alias Jeeva (34) of Korukkupet, used the cable wire of a mobile phone charger to strangulate the victim and rob her of her gold earrings, police said.

The deceased, identified as N. Sarojini Bai, lived with her husband, Nagarajan, on Vyasar Nagar 2nd Street in Vyasarpadi.

On Wednesday evening, Nagarajan returned home to find his wife lying unconscious. With the help of neighbours, he took her to a hospital, where she was declared dead.

Vyasarpadi Police recovered the elderly woman’s body and sent it for a post-mortem exam.

Since the woman’s death was deemed unnatural, police conducted investigations and secured CCTV footage in which a man was seen entering the house when Nagarajan was away.

Police traced the man, Murali, and found that he had strangulated the woman to death.

Murali and some others had been engaged by the elderly couple a few weeks ago to clean their house. Upon realising the two lived alone, Murali robbed them and murdered the woman in the process, police said.

The accused was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.