CHENNAI: Prima facie investigation into the murder of 28-year-old jewellery shop owner B Guna Ram at Nerkundram on Saturday has made the police suspect that previous enmity could have led to the crime. On Saturday, around 11.30 am, the assailant - pretending to be a customer - slit the throat of Guna Ram at his shop and made away with about 23 sovereigns of gold. The image of the accused was captured by a CCTV camera in the shop and released to the media.Killer’s Mission“Prima facie it does not appear to be a murder for gain,” Joint Commissioner (West Zone) K Sankar told Express. “It looks as if the motive of the killer was not to rob the ornaments…He came with the purpose of eliminating the victim,” he said. “It is too early to say, but it points to the involvement of a regular person who has been pledging jewels…The killer has been sent by someone with whom the victim had previous enmity.”While the police are hopeful of making a breakthrough in a day or so, the Madras Pawnbrokers Association alleged tardy progress in investigation. “We have given the CCTV footage to the police and all records…But there has been no progress in the case,” Association general secretary J Dharamchand Seervi said. “The killer is fair, dressed in jeans and T-shirt, looks like a college student and has a bag on his shoulder,” he said.Seervi too agreed with the police that the murder could not have not been for gain. He said the safe was open, with one or two kg of gold inside, and the killer could have easily decamped with them. All the pawned jewels were also intact. Hence, the killer must have taken 23 sovereigns only to hoodwink the police and make it appear like a crime for gain, he claimed. Previous Theft On Sunday, the murder turned murkier, with the association claiming that there was something more behind the whole incident than what met the eye. Seervi pointed to the controversy surrounding the previous theft in the same shop about six months ago in this connection. He said 935 grams of jewellery were stolen from the shop and the police had failed to crack the case. He alleged that due to the influence exerted by a north Indian jeweller on Arcot Road in Virugambakkam, Guna Ram was pressured by a police official to withdraw the complaint and go for a settlement. Further, after the theft, police filed an FIR only after three days, that too because of the pressure mounted by the association.Naming the police official, Seervi said that following a complaint lodged against him at the CM’s Cell, which was forwarded to the DGP, an inquiry was conducted at the Elephant Gate police station on February 28. But nothing happened after that. “We suspect that these people could have had a hand in the murder,” he alleged.Reacting to the charges, JCP Sankar said the victim had obtained gold from the Virugambakkam jeweller and later claimed that someone sprayed him on his face and stole 935 gm from the shop. “We found the veracity of his complaint doubtful. However, we are probing all angles now.”Maduravoyal Crime Inspector I John Arumairaj said that special teams had gone to different places to zero in on those who had come to the shop over the last week. Several persons were being questioned. “We are hoping that somebody would come forward and identify the killer,” he added.Shops to Down ShuttersThe Madras Pawnbrokers Association has announced that all pawn and jewellery shops in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts would down their shutters on Monday in protest against the murder. “We are also taking part in the funeral procession of the slain jeweller,” Seervi said.
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