Bizman found strangled in suburban apartment

CHENNAI: A 54-year-old businessman was found murdered in a bedroom of his third-floor apartment in suburban Nanganallur on Friday night. There were telephone and mobile charger wires around his neck and a pillow on his face. Police, who suspect the hand of a couple who recently joined the victim’s firm, said four gold rings, a bracelet and two mobile phones belonging to the him were missing.
As news of the killing of N R Chandrasekharan, who ran a company selling mosquito nets, spread, there was panic in the surrounding areas.
Police said Chandrasekharan’s wife C Gowri returned from work at around 10.20pm and found him dead on the bed. She immediately called her mother, who stays in another block in the same complex, and informed her husband’s employees who alerted the Pazhavanthangal police.
A team which rushed there with sniffer dogs and forensic experts found telephone and mobile charger wires around the victim’s neck and a pillow, allegedly used to smother him to death, on his face. “It appears the murder was committed around 4pm and at least two persons were involved,” an investigation officer said. There was clotted blood around his nose and a few scratches on the body, police said.
Chandrasekharan and Gowri, who got married 21 years ago, stayed in Abilash Apartments in Lakshmi Nagar, Nanganallur, with their 19-year-old daughter, a second year computer engineering student in Thanjavur. Gowri is the manager of the Bank of Baroda’s Mount Road branch. Chandrasekharan’s body was handed over to his family on Saturday.
Police said Chandrasekharan, who launched his company 12 years ago, had on Wednesday hired a ‘couple’ pestering him for employment. “They settled down at his office, just behind his apartment block in the same complex,” P Kumar (60), an employee of the company, told TOI. Describing the couple, another employee said, “The man was tall and appeared to be over 50 and the woman below 30 years of age.”
K Logu, a guard at the complex, said he saw Chandrasekharan talking over the phone on his balcony around 3pm. “I saw the couple walking out of the apartment around 4pm and came to know of the incident through police,” he said.
Chandrasekharan was said to be alone at home from 9am to 11 pm every day. South Chennai joint commissioner of police K P Shanmugarajeswaran said, “We have valid clues indicating the couple’s involvement in the incident. We hope to nab them soon.”