Bank officer murdered on day 1 of New Year

CHENNAI: The New Year got off to a violent start in the city, with a 52-year-old bank offic­er strangled to death in the bedroom of her house at Mahalingapuram on Mond­ay. The killer decamped with 22 sovereigns of gold jewell­ery from the house.R Seethalakshmi alias Aru­na, an Indian Bank officer married to naval captain Ram Mohan, who is the son of Janata Party president Subramaniam Swamy’s sister, became the fifth woman victim in a seri­es of unsolved murder cases in the city in the past few months.The couple did not have any children and, after her husband died of illness about three years ago, Aruna stayed with her unmarried sister R Prabhavati (54) at their late parents’ home on Scheme Road in Kamdar Nagar, Mahalingapuram.Prabhavati, deputy mana­ger in Punjab National Bank, had been transferred to Pud­ucherry recently and came home only on weekends. On Monday, she was packed and ready to go back, when tragedy struck in the wee hours.Around 3.30 am, Aruna’s cries jolted her from sleep, Prabhavati told Express. “My sister was asleep next to me and I thought that she was crying out aloud due to stomach pain.” On getting up, however, she saw an intruder strangling her sister. “Brandishing a knife, he threatened to kill us if we made any noise,” she said. The intruder had entered the house through an empty air-conditioner duct in the guest bedroom after removing the plywood panel.