Housemaid held for murder of elderly woman

MALAPPURAM: Police on Monday, arrested a housemaid in connection with the murder of an elderly woman at Valanchery.
The arrested identified as Shanthakumari (53), from Palakkad used to work in Kunjulakshmi Amma's (85) house in Vendallur.
On Sunday evening, police team took Shanthakumari into custody. According to Valanchery police, she has already confessed to the crime and said that she killed Kunjulakshmi Amma for gold ornaments.
Kunjulakshmi was found murdered at her house at 4pm with deep wounds on her body. Her ears were chopped off and gold ornaments from her body were missing.
Police traced the stolen gold ornaments to a jewellery showroom in Valanchery. The staff at the jewellery showroom confirmed that Shanthakumari had sold the ornaments at the shop.
According to the CI of Valanchery police A M Sidhique, the accused used to work at Kunjulakshmi Amma's house and had later moved to her son's house for household work. She used to frequently visit the victim at her house in Vendallur.
Police said, Kunjulakshi Amma was murdered using sharp weapons. She was sleeping in her bedroom when she was hacked three times by Shanthakumari and later strangulated to death. After making sure that the victim was dead Shanthakumari removed the gold ornaments from her body.
Police said, Shanthakumari even attended the funeral ceremony of the deceased held at their ancestral house in Palakkad the next day and she had also stayed there for three days after the ceremony.
Police have already recovered some of the gold ornaments and the weapon that was used for the murder. They also recovered Rs 20,000 from the accused's house. Police said that Shanthakumari deposited Rs 25,000 in bank after selling the stolen gold ornaments.
The CI has said that the accused did not take anyone's help. Shanthakumari was taken to different locations in Vendallur to collect evidences on Monday.