Sexagenarian maid murdered

A 62-year-old housemaid of an ophthalmologist in the city was found murdered in her house in Thiruvanmiyur on Saturday. The city police said 2.5 sovereigns gold was found stolen.

Police said four special teams have begun inquiry into the case with suspicions that someone known to either the doctor or the housemaid could be the culprit.

Police said eye doctors Radhika Subramanian (53) and her son Pragadeesh (30), of Rajagopal Street, Thiruvanmiyur, who ran a clinic in Mandaveli, returned home around 10 pm on Saturday to find Lakshmi lying in a pool of blood in the drawing room. She had a telephone cable twirled around her neck and had stab injuries on her body. “She was found strangulated with a wire and two stab injuries to her neck that could have been caused by a pen knife,” said a police officer. On information, police arrived at the crime scene with sniffer dog Julie.

The officer said that the 2.5 sovereign gold chain that the elderly woman was wearing was stolen. However, no other property in the house was reported missing. Police said Lakshmi, a native of Kizhambur in Tirunelveli, had been a housemaid at the doctor’s house for the past 11 years. She would not open the door for unknown people and would answer the bell from inside the closed door. “There is a suspicion that it could have been done by someone known as there was no sign of a break in,” said Jayaraj, Crime Inspector, Thiruvanmiyur. Four special teams have been formed that conducted inquiry with neighbours and regular visitors, including the milkman, the newspaperman and two other maids who came in regularly. “She has her sister   and brother-in-law living in West Mambalam but they don’t come here. She visits them. She was almost a part of the doctor’s family,” the Inspector said.

Shocked neighbours said they did not find anything amiss in the house until police arrived. “This is a posh locality with independent houses. Nobody will bother if there is some noise from the neighbour’s house. But in this case, we never heard any noise from the house,” a neighbour said.