Varsity employee held for killing mother, brother in Ghatkopar

The personal assistant cum stenographer to the vice chancellor of the Mumbai university has been arrested on charges of killing his elderly mother and 45-year-old brother.

Gopal Krishnan, 47 a resident of Jeevan Jyoti building in the Sainath Nagar, Ghatkopar was arrested on Friday night for killing his mentally challenged brother Jairam and bed-ridden mother Radha.

The incident came to light on Tuesday evening when Gopal returned home from work at 8.15 pm. His neighbour Kiran Cheda discovered Gopal sitting in a corner, while the bodies of his brother and mother were lying inside.

Gopal did not say anything to Cheda then and the neighbour then informed the police about the murders. The bodies were sent for post mortem and reports revealed that Radha was strangulated and that Jairam died of severe head injuries.

A senior police officer said, “Gopal was our prime suspect. The death of the two had taken place 12 hours before the case came to light. The timing that Gopal said he left for work went against him and we pointed out that when the incident took place he was at home.”

He added, “Gopal had earlier said that Radah’s gold chain and bangles had gone missing but they were later found in the house, ruling out the possibility of robbery. After thorough interrogation, he confessed that he killed the two as he had been very frustrated with their behaviour.”

After being grilled for two days Gopal finally broke down and confessed on Friday night. He told police officials that his brother Jairam, who was mentally challenged regularly quarrelled with him for no reason.

He added that his mother always supported Jairam and kept telling him that the house that he was staying in did not belong to him. On Tuesday morning Gopal was cooking food when Jairam spilled some floral waste in the wheat flour.

This led to a quarrel between the two and in an infuriated state Gopal smashed Jairams’ head with an iron rod, then he brought out a stone kept in he bathroom and again attacked his brother with it.

Radha then started cursing Gopal and he strangulated her.
Gopal also told police officials that he could not get married as all girls rejected him when they came to know about his mentally challenged brother and ailing mother.

Gopal’s father Shivram died in 2006 and since then Gopal has been taking care of the two, by doing everything  from cooking food to washing their clothes and cleaning the home.