Chennai GH woman contract worker arrested for murdering Covid patient – Times of India

Chennai News

CHENNAI: A 41-year-old woman Covid-19 patient, who disappeared from the corona ward at Chennai’s Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and found dead on the hospital premises days later, was murdered by a woman contract worker to steal her cash and mobile phone, police said on Tuesday. Police arrested the murder suspect, Rathi Devi, 40, of Thiruvottiyur.
The police recovered from her the stolen mobile phone of the deceased woman, identified as M Sunitha, 41, of Kadaperi in West Tambaram.
The police team solved the case after hospital staff members and patients told them that they had last seen Sunitha with Rathi Devi, who had taken her in a wheelchair from ward number 268 on the third floor of the Tower – III.
On questioning, Rathi Devi, a widow, who is living with her 22-year-old son and a daughter, confessed to having murdered Sunitha to meet her expenses as she was in dire need of money.
Rathi Devi told the police that she had noticed Sunitha counting notes in the denomination of Rs 500 in her bag. She devised a plan to steal the money from Sunitha. She took Sunitha in a wheelchair under the pretext of taking her to a scan room. She used an emergency lift and took her to the eighth floor, where she strangled her and dumped the body in a EB room close to the staircase.
Flower Bazaar deputy commissioner of police S Maheshwaran said, “Sunitha’s hyoid bone was not broken, which normally breaks during strangulation. As her lungs were infected due to coronavirus, she had breathing difficulties. So when Rathi Devi applied a mild force, she died.”
Rathi Devi stole cash and the mobile phone. She laid Sunitha’s body in a sleeping position after keeping her chappals under the head.
Sunitha’s husband Mouli is a faculty member at a private engineering college in Andhra Pradesh. Sunitha, a homemaker, was admitted to GH on May 23 after she tested positive for Covid-19. On May 24, Mouli visited the GH and found his wife missing from the corona ward. He filed a police complaint. Sunitha’s decomposed body was found on June 8.
Chennai city police commissioner Shankar Jiwal appreciated the police team that solved the case.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/chennai-gh-woman-contract-worker-arrested-for-murdering-covid-patient/articleshow/83544830.cms