The brutal murders of a woman and her three teenage daughters staying in a crammed residential building in Muthu Street in Royapettah, which is right behind the make-shift Royapettah police station, by her husband sent shockwaves across the city on Friday.
After bludgeoning his wife, Pandiammal (38) and two daughters, Pavithra (19) and Parimala (18) with an iron rod on Monday night, the accused, Chinnaraj (35), who makes sweets for a living, went into the bedroom and strangled the youngest daughter, Sneha (16), using a wire.
Chinnaraj then stayed with the four dead bodies for a couple of days inside the 300-sq.ft. apartment until the bodies started decomposing.
Nandakumar, a resident of the building, said that some of them looked through an opening at the top of the front door and noticed blood on the floor. “We guessed something was wrong and told the houseowner,” he says.
After receiving complaints from other residents of unbearable stench over the last few days, Raja Bather (73), the owner of the building, said that he saw Chinnaraj on Thursday morning and asked him to check on the same.
Suspicious of the bad odour, Raja Bather decided to call the police on Thursday night. “When I saw him on Thursday morning, I told him that a very bad smell was coming from his house. I saw him go into the house and come out in 30 minutes. He said he took care of it and walked away. By Thursday evening, the smell was unbearable and that is why I decided to call the police,” said Raja Bather.
A special police team, which launched a hunt, nabbed Chinnaraj on the Beach road on Friday morning when he came to retrieve his two-wheeler.
‘Met in Palani’
Based on Chinnaraj’s confession, the police report that he had met Pandiammal, who was divorced and living with three daughters, while working in a sweet stall four years ago in Palani. He later married her and came to Chennai to live with her and her daughters.
The police say that Chinnaraj had a drinking problem that created a rift between the couple.
After returning from Karaikudi, Pandiammal’s native place, on Monday, Chinnaraj reportedly consumed alcohol, making Pandiammal angry who forced him to sleep outside the house.
The report goes on to claim that Chinnaraj was enraged by the way he was treated and killed his wife and three daughters.
