Killer Ram Kumar befriended Chennai techie Swathi on Facebook: police

Chennai: The ‘killer’ arrested in the Infy employee’s murder was not a total stranger to the deceased as investigations suggest the two were already connected on Facebook for some time. Prime suspect Ram Kumar figures in the list of Swathi’s FB friends.

Read: Chennai techie’s murder likened to ‘ISIS-type beheading’

Sources said they were in possession of messages exchanged between Swathi and Ram Kumar on the social networking site. The exchanges include chat history and some comments made by Kumar over photographs posted by Swathi.     

Read: Swathi murder case: Prime accused to be brought before court today

A senior police official privy to the investigation maintained that most of the interaction between them were of generic nature in greetings. After media houses began flashing pictures of Swathi sourced from her FB page, the family had the page deactivated.

Read: Chennai techie murder: Ram Kumar used uncle’s sickle to kill Swathi

It was through social media that the duo exchanged phone numbers. This was how a text message sent by Ram Kumar before committing the murder got delivered to the cloned mobile phone of Swathi. "Being friends on FB doesn't mean that Swathi approved or encouraged him. She had numerous FB friends. Ram Kumar stalked Swathi on FB and he began tracking her in real life too", noted a senior police official.

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Investigations reveal that Ram Kumar had moved to the city with dreams of making it big in Kollywood and had been waiting a 'chance' from filmmakers, including actor-turned-director S.J. Surya.

Ram Kumar chose Choolaimedu as his place of stay because it was near Swathi's home.