Murder of senior citizen in Coimbatore: Mastermind surrenders before Chennai court

COIMBATORE: A day after the Coimbatore city police arrested five people for murdering an elderly woman in Kempatti Colony, the mastermind of the crime surrendered before a magistrate court at George Town in Chennai on Wednesday.
The murder mastermind has been identified as Thilak Raj, of Kempatti Colony. Police are planning to submit a petition before the court seeking custody of the accused.
The Big Bazaar Street (crime) police on Tuesday arrested five accused - Latha alias Latha Rani, 47, her younger sister Mala alias Revathi Rani, 43, of Kempatti Colony, Manoj alias Manojkumar and his friends Siva alias Selvam and Sathy alias Sathyaseelan, all residents of Peelamedu.
According to police, Latha befriended the victim - Dhanalakshmi, 62 – at a grocery shop where they used to visit often. She started visiting Dhanalakshmi’s home. She learned that the Dhanalakshmi was staying alone at her home and was in possession of gold ornaments. She told this to her brother, Thilak Raj. Raj and others hatched a plan to steal the woman’s gold.
After their first attempt went in vain, they murdered the woman on September 30 and stole her gold ornaments weighing 30 sovereigns. The police recovered the stolen ornaments.
The accused were booked under sections 302 (murder) and 380 (theft in dwelling house) of the Indian Penal Code.