By IANS,
Chennai : The Tamil Nadu police Thursday arrested two people and with that claimed to have solved the mystery behind 16 murders in the past 40 days in and around the city.
“It is not the handiwork of a psychopath after all. The two killers, Subramani and Nagarajan, seem to be perfectly sane. Friends in the media invented the ‘psychopath’ theory,” Chennai Police Commissioner R. Sekar told IANS.
The suspects – V. Subramani alias Subbu, 25, and Nagarajan alias Nagu, 22 – have admitted to committing at least two murders and indicated involvement of at least eight accomplices in seven other crimes, Sekar said.
Though the arrested men have not admitted to all the murders, police sources said they were hopeful of solving the rest of the murders by following leads provided by them.
“The leads obtained by questioning the two accused are bound to result in more arrests, ridding the city and its suburbs of its nocturnal fear,” Sekar added.
The two men admitted to being liquor and marijuana addicts. Their modus operandi was to kick their sleeping victims on the neck, robbing them and eventually killing them. The accused carried petrol containers to deface their victims to prevent identification, a police press statement said.
Speaking to IANS, investigating officer inspector N.P. Rajendran said the killers committed their murders to satisfy their addiction needs.
“The possibility of getting easy money for their daily quota of liquor and marijuana drove them to robbery and murders,” Rajendran added.
Most of the murders took place in the southwest suburbs here and some in the eastern suburbs, neighbouring district of Cuddalore and one woman was found dead in Kumbhakonam, south of here.