New Delhi:
P Ram Kumar, accused of murdering 24-year-old Swathi, an IT professional from Chennai, committed suicide in jail on September 18.
The suicide happened at around 4:30 pm on Sunday after the accused bit a live electric wire in Puzhal Central Prison, where he was lodged, sources said. He was taken immediately to a hospital, but doctors declared him dead on arrival, said a police officer investigating the case.
It is still not certain as to where did the alleged suicide took place. It seems a little dubious as to why officials chose to take him to a hospital more than an hour away from the jail. Officials at the jail were not available for comment. The postmortem is likely to be performed later in the day and the report will give police more clarity.
Ram Kumar's lawyer SP Ramaraj, however, alleged foul play. "It's a murder in jail. Nowhere in a jail would there be a power supply strong enough to kill a person. We would ask for an open postmortem," said the lawyer claiming Ram Kumat did not show any suicidal tendency when he met him yesterday in the jail.
Ram Kumar, who had allegedly hacked Swathi to death at the Nungambakkam Railway Station in June, had attempted suicide earlier too. On July 3, he slashed his neck as the police was about to arrest him. He had been in hospital in Tirunelveli for a while, undergoing treatment.
An engineering graduate, Ram Kumar had allegedly killed Swathi after she rejected his advances. The police zeroed on him from the CCTV images retrieved from apartments close to the railway station.
