A 23-year-old man was arrested today in connection with the murder of a goldsmith, hailing from West Bengal in the city, and happens to be his friend, some 15 days ago.
According to police, Sameer and Ashish Panja have joined the goldsmithy belonging to one Thirunavukkarasu in R S Puram some months ago, and were staying in a room above the workshop.
On the night of December 21, Sameer, Panja and another youth, Milan, who placed both in the workshop, all belonged to West Midnapore District in West Bengal, were in the room and after hearing noise, Thirunavukkarasu rushed to the room, where he found Milan running out of it.
On entering the room, he found Ashish with minor injuries and Sameer lying in a semi-conscious state and rushed both to the Government hospital, where the latter died on admission.
Panja, who was undergoing treatment managed to escape from the hospital, after a couple of days, and was nabbed this morning from P N Pudur in the city.
On interrogation, he said to have confessed that Milan and he had hatched a plot to steal gold and other valuables and given cyanide laced soft drink to Sameer on that day, who opposed the move, they said.
Police also seized 50 grams of cyanide from Ashish and two special teams have been formred to trace Milon, who is at large, they said.
