Chennai Infosys techie murder: Accused used to stalk Swathi, tried to end life to evade arrest

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“His intention was not to escape, but to slit his own throat with a blade. He injured his wrist and leg with a sharp iron object in an attempt to commit suicide,” an officer said, describing a deep cut on his throat. Now admitted to General Hospital, Tirunelveli, Ramkumar will be taken to Chennai by Tuesday for interrogation, the police said. “He had about two dozen stitches on his neck. His condition is stable now,” the officer said.

According to the police, Ramkumar, who had arrived in Chennai on April 3 looking for work and had been stalking the victim for more than two months, had fled home — in Panpoli village of Tirunelveli district — after allegedly hacking Swathi to death early June 24 morning.

According to preliminary findings, Ramkumar worked at a textile shop in Chennai while looking for a better job, having left his mechanical engineering course unfinished. He had reportedly proposed marriage to Swathi, claiming he was an engineering graduate, a colleague had told the police after Swathi’s murder. This rejection, the police believe, eventually led to the murder.

It wasn’t an easy case to crack, however.

Given a deadline of Thursday by the High Court to solve the murder, the city police formed several small teams and fanned out across a radius of 5 km of the railway station. Armed with a CCTV image of the accused, which was then digitally enhanced, the police teams visited every household in the area for details. A surprise breakthrough came at AS Mansion, a men’s hostel on Sourashtra 8th Street in Choolaimedu, near the station. A security guard at the hostel identified him as Ramkumar, who stayed in Room 404, the officer said.

The police found the youth had left the hostel the same day Swathi was killed. “Usually they (hostel inmates) go home on Friday evenings and return on Monday. But he did not return on Monday,” an officer said. The hostel’s manager found an application form giving all details — Ramkumar had entered them while gaining entry at the hostel.

The police raided his room and found a bloodstained shirt. With the accused most certainly having fled home, Chennai Police Commissioner T K Rajendran alerted Tirunelveli’s Superintendent of Police, S P V Vikraman.

Before Friday noon, a woman sub-inspector in mufti went to Panpoli village and visited several homes, including Ramkumar’s, posing as a Revenue Department official. “She confirmed that Ramkumar had returned home a week ago and did not go back to Chennai,” an officer from Tirunelveli police said. “We were informed that he would return home after 6 pm. We decided to wait till dark.”

A team of 10 officers surrounded his home after 10 pm, and the final raid came within minutes.