Slippers give clue about woman's murderer

A pair of slippers bearing burn marks due to welding sparks, led to the detection of a murder of a 65-year-old woman at Neelasandra on June 16.

Adugodi police have arrested a 22-year-old man who has confessed to robbing Gajalakshmi of Rs 6,800 and bludgeoning her to death using a cement brick.

The arrested is Syed Nadeem, a welder and a resident of Munigowda Garden at Neelasandra. While inspecting the crime scene, the police team stumbled on a pair of blood-stained slippers which they confirmed did not belong to the victim. Upon close examination, the police found burn marks from welding sparks on the slippers. The police narrowed down their search to fabrication and nearby welding shops in the area and picked up a suspect who gave out information on the accused.

The police then picked up Nadeem who was wearing new clothes and shoes. He confessed to the crime when the police questioned him as to where he got the money to buy them. He confessed to police that he bludgeoned Gajalakshmi using a cement brick when she woke up while he was stealing the money inside the scrap shop.

Nadeem was living behind Gajalakshmi’s scrap shop for the last five years and had left his job on June 13. He used to come to Gajalakshmi’s scrap shop giving her iron scrap in return for money and knew that the woman had money with her.

Nadeem then planned to rob her on the night of June 16. He hid himself inside a public toilet nearby and waited to strike on her. He knew that Gajalakshmi would sleep alone in her shop while her daughter-in-law lived in the next street.

When he tried to enter the shop at around 2 am, a few goats tied nearby started bleating prompting him to go back into the toilet. He waited there for another hour. He then came out of the toilet at around 3.30 am, entered the shop, murdered her and then robbed and fled the spot leaving his slippers behind, the police said.