Chennai Police arrest woman contract worker for killing Covid patient in hospital

Sunitha's body was found in a decomposed state a few days after she went missing and it is now revealed that Rathi Devi strangled her to death in a bid to seize money and mobile phone.

Written by Janardhan Koushik

Chennai | Updated: June 16, 2021 06:11 PM IST

2 min read

On May 31, Mouli registered a missing complaint at the C4 police station situated at the hospital complex.

Greater Chennai Police on Tuesday arrested a woman contract worker at Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital for allegedly killing a patient whose body was found dead days after she went missing from the Covid ward.

Rathi Devi from Thiruvottiyur strangled Sunitha (41) to death after taking her from the third floor of Tower 3 on a wheelchair and dumped the body on the eighth floor. Rathi Devi stole money worth Rs 9,500 and a mobile phone from Sunitha, the police said.

Sunitha, hailing from West Tambaram, was admitted due to Covid on May 21 and mysteriously disappeared two days later. The hospital informed Sunitha’s husband Mouli, who works as a faculty member in a private college in Andhra Pradesh, that she was missing.

On May 31, Mouli registered a missing complaint at the C4 police station situated at the hospital complex. Sunitha’s decomposed body was found on the eighth floor of Tower 3 on June 8.

After the post-mortem, the body was handed over to Mouli. The C4 police had told Indianexpress.com that they were analyzing CCTV footage and also questioning healthcare workers.

The police found out that Rathi Devi, on the pretext of scanning purposes, took Sunitha away in a wheelchair and went up in an emergency lift before committing the crime to seize her money. She dumped the body near the staircase on the eighth floor.

Janardhan Koushik

Janardhan Koushik is Deputy Copy Editor of indianexpress.com. He is a New Media journalist with over five years of reporting experience in the industry. He has a keen interest in politics, sports, films, and other civic issues. Janardhan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Communication from SRM Arts and Science College and a PG Diploma in New Media from Asian College of Journalism, one of the top ranked journalism schools in India. He started his career with India Today group as a sub-editor as part of the sports team in 2016. He has also a wide experience as a script-writer having worked for short-films, pilot films as well as a radio jockey cum show producer while contributing for an online Tamil FM. As a multilingual journalist, he actively tracks the latest development in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry utiling his well-established networks to contribute significantly to breaking news stories. He has also worked as a sports analyst for Star Sports. ... Read More

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