Few stray incidents cannot determine if Chennai was an unsafe city, says Chennai police commissioner. All the incidents of killings were solved and culprits arrested within few days.

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu police late on Friday night cracked a seemingly blind murder case, the brutal killing of Infosys techie S Swathi in broad daylight on a crowded Nungambakkam railway station eight days ago with the arrested of prime suspect, engineering graduate hailing from Senkottai in Tirunelveli district, Ram Kumar.

This youth had been stalking Swathi for some days and is also suspected to have tried to befriend her. Chennai police commissioner, TK Rajendran, said that the suspected killed her as she did not respond to his advances.

He described the crime as one of the few stray incidents that took place in Chennai over last month, said police did painstaking investigations to ferret out the suspect, hiding in his native Senkottai. Hundreds of policemen and women did the traditional police detective work, talking to hundreds of people going door to door, till they hit goldmine that a person answering the description had stayed in a Mansion in Chooleimedu, close to the residence of Swathi.

Police found the shirt that the suspect had worn on the day he allegedly hacked Swathi to death and there was an identity card that has his Senkottai address. Police dispatched a team and surrounded the suspect late on Friday night.

When the suspect heard lots of dogs barking in his area, he knew his game was up. He suspected that the cops were at his door and slashed himself with a blade. He was injured seriously and admitted to local hospital in Tirunelveli where doctors had placed him an ICU. He has received 18 stiches in his throat.

Rajendran thanked the people and media for their cooperation, but felt if the media was a bit more restrained and understanding, it would help policing work.

A few stray incidents cannot determine if the law and order in a city or state has deteriorated, he said.

Chennai, considered to be one of the safest cities as far as women were concerned, was being dubbed an unsafe city following spate of daylight murders, including the Infosys techie’s murder. City police commissioner, Rajendran said it was unfair to paint such a wrong picture of the city on the basis of few stray incidents.

Addressing a crowded press conference here, the Chennai Police commissioner requested the media to exercise restraint and allow police to carry out its investigations properly. Parents and siblings of Ram Kumar are also being quested, he said. As per the evidence that the police has Ram Kumar had acted on his own and he did not have any accomplice.

When asked about a spate of day light murders and hackings in Chennai over the last month, the city police chief said that there were stray incidents that had no correlation to the law and order in the city and state. In all cases, the culprits were arrested promptly and cases filed.

Relentless police investigations and detective work paid off, with suspect in custody within a few days, the police official said.

Ram Kumar, an engineering graduate, was living in a Mansion, (cheaper accommodation) in Chooleimedu, where he spent few hours after murdering Swathi before fleeing to Tirunelveli. Police had tracked Swathi’s phone to this Chooleimedu Mansion, where its last signal was traced to.

He has two sisters and his father works in BSNL and mother is a housewife.

“It seems the family is unaware of his alleged deed,” a police official said.