Chennai: Stephen, the prime suspect in the murder of three people, adopted the lethal shots of what he claims to be potassium cyanide, took this path after his attempt on the life of his wife Mary Roselin’s elder brother John Philomenan whom he held accountable for discord in his marriage.
It was the dowry harassment complaint his wife filed against him at Uthiramerur police station in neighbouring Kancheepuram district, at the behest of her brother, which saw the latter turn into a villain. Stephen believed that John was the reason behind his wife not reconciling with him and living separately. Subsequently, Stephen tried to run John over in his vehicle, but the latter escaped narrowly.
Only after that failed attempt did the tech-savvy Stephen then begin to research online when he came across Potassium Cyanide (KCN) as the best lethal shot to kill John and make it look like a natural death. With his contacts, Stephen got in touch with the illegal arms traders and chemical dealers in Mumbai. He purchased the chemical, which he termed as KCN for Rs 1.5 lakh last year. He also picked up firearms, a revolver and a quality pistol believed to be made either in Russia or Germany, both costing him Rs 12 lakhs. Stephen so far claims that he had not used them and was keeping them in self-defence. Stephen started off killing John Philomenan by hiring his aides and made the kill without any glitches in Thousand Lights on April 19, 2015.
The deceased was walking near his house when he collapsed and died. The case, which was investigated as an unnatural death under provisions of CrPC, was closed after the preliminary post-mortem findings said that the death occurred due to acute myocardial infarction.
A month later, Stephen got intimate with one Selvi of Uthiramerur. Since her husband Sridhar was a hindrance to their relationship, Stephen killed him in similar fashion on May 17, 2015.
Five months later, Stephen, who also got close to Selvi’s sister Amala, found the latter’s husband Henry a stumbling block. Henry was killed on October 10, 2015 with another lethal shot.
Sources said the realtor studied upto class XII in regular stream and did his M.Com through open-university stream, besides earning diplomas in networking software, and hardware. Fluent in English, Stephen was able to seal several high-profile beach front properties in realty deals.
