Over 24 hours after S. Swathi was brutally hacked to death in the Nungambakkam Railway Station, the police seemed clueless about why she was attacked. If they did know anything, they were tightlipped. The stroke of luck was that the image and footage of the suspect walking down the adjacent road was recorded in a CCTV camera of a private building in the area — a house in Choolaimedu.
Soon after the incident, the GRP went in search of CCTV footage in the locality as there are no cameras in the railway station. “We found a house on Sowrashtra Nagar, 7{+t}{+h}Cross Street, which had a camera facing the road,” said a source. The police requested the owner for footage. There are around 10 cameras in the house and a few of them face the road. “The owner had installed the camera facing the road hoping that it would be of some use to the public or police. Luckily, the suspect’s image was captured,” said an officer.
The police said the suspect ran down along platform number 2 and crossed the tracks to jump down to Railway Border Road. He is seen checking his hands for injuries after scaling the station wall. Following this, he walked a few metres and took a right turn into 7th Street and then turned left into 7{+t}{+h}Cross Street.
“He walked into 8{+t}{+h}Cross Street and probably escaped through Choolaimedu High Road. We are collecting CCTV footage from the stretch too,” said an officer. Police appreciated the house-owner for installing the cameras.
Published - June 26, 2016 12:00 am IST
