A brutal murder was reported in Chennai's Thoraipakkam where the police found the body of a woman in a suitcase on Thursday morning. The deceased is aged 32 years from Madhavaram.
The unfortunate find was made at about 6:30 am, when some residents of the area saw an unpleasant smell coming from a suitcase left at a construction site along Kumaran Kudil Main Road. On searching, the police found blood stains and later on the dismembered body in the suitcase. The body was taken to Government Royapettah Hospital for post-mortem as police began investigating the case.
The suspect was named Manikandan, 22 years old, from Sivaganga district, and he was arrested shortly after the incident. In his statement, he said that he killed her with a hammer after a quarrel over money. From the police reports, the fight degenerated when the sex worker asked for more money from the man. The accused Manikandan chopped the dead body into pieces and put it in the suitcase and escaped from the scene of the crime.
The case was reported when her brother reported her missing after she did not come home as expected. He had installed a tracking application on her phone and got her last known location around Thoraipakkam. He then continued in the same spirit and went to the police on Wednesday night, which made them investigate the matter. The police were able to track Manikandan’s movements in the days leading up to the crime with the help of CCTV footage from the location.
In addition, as investigations proceed, police are looking for the broker who arranged the sex worker’s and Manikandan’s meeting. This unfortunate event brings to the fore emerging issues of violence against women and continued insecurity of sex workers in urban centres.
