Date:21/11/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/11/21/stories/2005112117860100.htm

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Jeweller murdered by nephew, say police

Staff Reporter

Accused person says his uncle committed suicide; police raid shop and recover gold

HYDERABAD: Mysterious murder, dramatic detection! The police raided the shop of jeweller Devakinandan, who was allegedly murdered 12 days ago, in the presence of media and arrested his nephew Mukesh Kannodia at Domalguda on Sunday stating their hunch of an insider's role in the homicide proved to be correct.

Displaying the six kilos gold recovered from Kannodia's table drawer, Additional Commissioner of Crimes Rajiv Trivedi said "this substantiated his complicity in the killing." However, the accused refuted the charge saying his uncle had committed suicide.

Police teams, along with media persons, drove to the Bhagawathi Jewellery shop located on Gaganmahal road around 10.45 a.m. drawing attention of a large number of locals. As the shop shutter was raised, Kannodia led the sleuths straight to his table in the last room, opened the drawer and took out six gold biscuits each weighing a kilogram.

The incident

The jeweller went missing on November 8 evening after purchasing six kilos gold from the Minerals and Metal Trading Corporation office at Masab Tank. He was found poisoned to death in his car in the early hours of next day at Gachchibowli. The entire gold he carried was stolen.

"No signs of forcible entry into the car, absence of struggle marks inside and the inference that the killers were aware of the victim carrying gold led us to suspect insider's role," Mr. Trivedi said.

Detectives had been questioning Kannodia for the past 11 days. He spilled the beans on Saturday night saying he kept the gold in the table drawer.

"We wanted to be transparent in our probe since several jewellers earlier accused us of torturing victim's family members in the name of investigation," the Additional Commissioner said. Hence, the media was asked to be present during the search.

Lie detector and narcoanalysis tests would be conducted on the accused though the findings were not admissible in courts. However, Kannodia feigned ignorance about his uncle's death. He said that he went to Mahavir hospital on November 8 at the instance of his uncle, collected the gold and returned to his house in Narayanaguda.

But he could not explain as to why he failed to inform detectives about the gold in his possession. Police said the accused would be produced in the court and later taken into police custody to find out how he had killed the victim.