P Ramkumar, the accused in the murder of software engineer Swathi at Nungambakkam railway station in Chennai allegedly committed suicide on Sunday evening at the high-security Puzhal Prison where he has been remanded since his arrest.
According to sources in Chennai Police, Ramkumar climbed atop the prison cell and touched the live wire passing through the room. Though prison staff rushed to the cell and switched off the power supply, it is believed that he had succumbed on the spot. Ramkumar was rushed to the Government General Hospital at Royapettah where the doctors declared him brought dead by 6 pm.
More details are not known except that the autopsy woud be held on Monday. The suicide shocked the police and investigating officials alike. Ramkumar, who murdered Swathi in front of hundreds of people waiting to board a suburban train at Nungambakkam station on June 24 had disappeared from the spot and it took Chennai Police almost a week to arrest him from his village. It was one of the widely reported manhunt by Chennai Police using a combination of human intelligence and technology which led to the arrest of Ramkumar from Meenakshipuram, his village in Tirunelveli district.
Ramkumar had tried to commit suicide when he was nabbed by police and was in a critical care unit for almost a week. Though he was remanded to judicial custody after the arrest, it was reported that he was always under observation by the prison guard due to his suicidal tendency.
Details like whether the guards were monitoring the movements of the accused in the jail on Sunday would be known only after the police opens up their version on Monday. Ramkumar’s parents had approached the Madras High Court with a plea to transfer the Swathi murder case to CBI and had claimed that their son was innocent. But the court had rejected their petition.