Suspect held in Bengali goldsmith murder

Coimbatore: A week after a goldsmith from West Bengal was found dead, the Coimbatore police arrested a 23-year-old man on Saturday for poisoning him to death with cyanide-laced soft drink. According to the R.S. Puram police, Sameer (23), Ashish Panja (22) and Milon (20), all from West Midnapore district in West Bengal, were staying in a rented room in R.S. Puram.

Sameer and Ashish Panja were working as goldsmith in a jewellery manufacturing unit belonging to Thirunavukarasu on Venkatakrishna Road, near T.K. Street, in R.S. Puram. The police said the duo’s room was located just above that of Thirunavukarasu. When there were loud screams from the room where Sameer and his friend Ashish Panja, Milon stayed, Thirunavukarasu rushed to check what the problem was. Just then, Milon ran out from the room and fled.

Thirunavukarasu found Ashish Panja with minor injuries and Sameer in a semi-conscious state. Both men were rushed to the CMCH for treatment. However, Sameer died a few hours later. The R.S. Puram police had registered a case of unnatural death and began investigations into the incident. Ashish Panja managed to escape from the CMCH, and had been on the run since then. The police probe revealed that Milon and Ashish Panja had hatched a plan to steal gold and other valuables from Thirunavukarasu’s unit.

They are alleged to have given cyanide-laced soft drink to Sameer to rob the jewellery from the unit. However, they did not find any jewellery. On Saturday, a police team, headed by R.S. Puram inspector S. Balamurali Sundaram arrested Ashish Panja from P.N. Pudur and seized around 50 grams of cyanide from him. They claimed that the cyanide was used to poison Sameer. The case has been altered to murder.