Teenager kills elderly to buy video game console

The charred body of 69-year-old Rajam, a retired nurse living alone in Ekkadu village in adjoining Thiruvallur district, was recovered near a bush at Sengadu near Sriperumpudur on Monday.

The boy desperately wanted to buy the video game costing Rs 8,000 and allegedly gave the idea of killing the woman, their neighbour, after his aunt said it was too expensive, Sriperumpudur DSP Gajendrakumar said.

He invited Rajam to his house on the pretext of giving her mangoes and strangulated her using a piece of cloth while his aunt hit her head with a grinder stone resulting in her death on Sunday.

They then took the woman's jewellery and packed the body in a gunny bag. Later, the boy and his uncle transported the body on a two-wheeler and set it afire by dousing petrol.

The case was solved when upon a missing complaint filed by Rajam's son Roger Daniel, who is currently living in Chennai, the police approached the deceased's neighbours who told them they had last seen her visiting the accused's house.

The boy has confessed to murdering the woman with the help of his aunt and uncle, the DSP claimed.

The three were produced before a court here yesterday, he said, adding that while the couple were remanded to judicial custody and sent to Vellore prison, the boy has been sent to a juvenile home.