Bengaluru: Facebook profile helps nab murder suspect

BENGALURU: The East division police, who cracked the Pulikeshinagar elderly couple murder case within 24 hours by arresting one of the accused, could not nab the other accused as they had no clue on how he looked. But the questioning of several people led them to the Facebook account of the accused and helped them arrest him. The second accused is Chandrashekhar (in pic) alias Sunkari Chand Seth, 37, a resident of Begumpet in Hyderabad.

Sources in the investigating team said that the prime accused in the case, Premchand Jain B, an electrician and a resident of P&T Colony near Bilal Masjid in KG Halli, had failed to describe how his partner in crime looked like.

"Based on information provided by Jain, the taxi driver, who had ferried them to the airport after the murder, was summoned. He was not aware of the murders the duo had committed. He was also a friend of Chand Seth and was asked whether Seth had any other friends in Bengaluru. He revealed details about another friend, Salman, and he was questioned," an official said.

Jain and the taxi driver had no Facebook accounts while Salman, a common friend of both the accused, had one. "It proved a boon for us as Salman and Seth were friends on Facebook. We got Seth's photos from his profile. Armed with the photographs, we began the search for him. We got to know that Seth was running a live band in Hyderabad and was also in a live-in relationship with a bar girl," the official said.

"As per our information, Seth had gone to Hyderabad after committing the murder and from there, he had gone to Punjab to leave his girlfriend at her husband's house. The police team found her house but she was not present. However, the team kept trying to trace him and finaly arrested him from Hyderabad, based on credible information," the official added.

During interrogation, Seth reportedly revealed that he was in need of money and so committed the heinous crime. "He revealed that he had incurred huge losses in the live band business, which he was running in a partnership, and it had been shut down recently. He was selling clothes on footpaths for a livelihood after that. He was addicted to vices and had spent a huge amount of money on bar girls. At this juncture, Jain came up with the plan of murdering the elderly couple and Seth readily agreed," the official said.

DCP (East) N. Sateesh Kumar confirmed the arrest. It may be recalled that Parvatharaj, 61, and his wife Chandrakala, 55, residents of Coles Road in Frazer Town, were stabbed to death on April 22. The accused had robbed them of gold jewels and Rs  50,000 cash. The murder had come to light on April 24.