Coimbatore: A 25-year-old construction worker was arrested on Sunday for murdering a 71-year-old woman for gold ornaments and later raping her at her residence near Thudiyalur on April 17. He is likely to be remanded in judicial custody on Monday.
The Thadagam police identified the accused as S Vinoth alias Karuppaiah, of Sevagampatti village in Pudukkottai. He was residing in a rental house at Pannimadai near Thudiyalur along with his wife and daughter.
According to an investigation officer, Vinoth plotted the robbery after he came to know the elderly woman was residing alone. “He entered her house on the night of April 17, strangled her to death and later raped her. He then decamped with 10 grams of gold ornaments and a mobile phone.”
Coimbatore: Relatives of Dr Umashankar, chairman of Chennai Hospitals who was run over by a car on Saturday, initially refused to take the body home after postmortem on Sunday.
Former employees of the hospital and the relatives staged a demonstration at the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), where the postmortem was held, claiming that Umashankar was murdered over a business dispute.
But the Thudiyalur police ruled out foul play. “Preliminary inquiry revealed that Richard of Coonoor was behind the wheel of the car that mowed down Umashankar. He was on the way to a cinema hall with his family when the accident happened. He was using a navigation app to reach the place and had lost control over the vehicle. We questioned him but did not find any foul play,” inspector Balamurali Sundaram said.
Coimbatore: The district witnessed an incident-free New Year on Thursday night, thanks to vigilant personnel in the police department.
As many as 2,050 cops deployed in the urban and rural parts of the district made sure that public celebrations are banned on streets. No road accidents were reported and no cases were booked for traffic rules violation.
While the city police had deployed 1,350 personnel from Thursday night to Friday morning, the rural police had 700 cops on patrol.
Police had set up 34 temporary checkpoints in the city to curb drunk driving. “We closed the Avinashi Road flyover, Dr Nanjappa Road flyover, 100 Feet Road – Chinnasamy Road flyover and North Coimbatore flyover. Most of the hotels were closed by 10pm. Streets were deserted after that. Cops stopped reckless bike riders and shared safe riding tips,” said deputy commissioner of police G Stalin.