The police said the accused hatched a plan to rob the victim of gold ornaments as he was in need of money. (representative image)
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The Thirupalaivanam police have cracked the murder-for-gain case of a 58-year-old woman, and arrested a bus driver from Pulicat in Tiruvallur district.
On Monday, Shakunthala, who was a domestic aide in Vanaja’s house, found the house locked. She called Vanaja’s husband, Radhakrishnan, who runs a grocery shop. Radhakrishnan said his wife had left home after serving him breakfast at around 9 a.m. When repeated phone calls to her went unanswered, he returned home and opened the house using a spare key.
On entering the house, he found Vanaja lying in a pool of blood with her throat slit and a knife in her neck. He also noticed that the gold jewellery she had been wearing, including an eight-sovereign thali chain, bangles weighing three-sovereigns and earrings, all weighing about 15 sovereigns in total, was missing. Based on his complaint, the Thirupalaivanam police registered a case, and a special team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police (Manali) Vivekannan took up the investigation.
After analysing CCTV footage and other evidence, the police arrested the accused, Yugendran alias Abdul Rahman, 29, a bus driver residing at Kalaignar Nagar.
The police also recovered 12 sovereigns and 2 grams of the stolen gold jewellery from him. He was later remanded in judicial custody.
The investigation revealed that Yugendran, a native of Uthukottai, had been living in Pulicat with his wife for the past four years. He frequently visited Vanaja’s house to buy idli batter, and had noticed that she regularly wore gold ornaments.
The police said that the accused was facing financial difficulties as his wife was pregnant and hatched a plan to rob Vanaja of her jewellery.
Believing she would be alone at home, he went to her house and attempted to snatch her gold chain. When she resisted and raised an alarm, he allegedly grabbed a knife kept nearby and stabbed her in the neck. Yugendran then fled with the gold ornaments, police said.
The police arrested the accused within four hours of the crime being reported.
In an attempt to evade the arrest, he allegedly jumped a wall and sustained fractures to both the arms, the police added.
Published – July 15, 2026 12:13 am IST
