Chennai: A 41-year-old woman Covid-19 patient, who disappeared from the corona ward at Chennai’s Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital found dead on the hospital premises a week later.
The deceased has identified as Sunitha, 41, of West Tambaran in Chennai.
The mortem has confirmed that the Sunitha was murdered while the accused hospital worker has Rathi Devi has confessed that she had murdered the woman for her money and mobile, according to the police.
Police arrested the murder suspect, Rathi Devi, 40, of Thiruvottiyur and recovered the stolen mobile of the deceased woman.
The police became suspicious of Rathi Devi after other workers at the hospital informed the officials that they had last seen Rathi Devi taking Sunitha on a wheelchair from ward number 268 on the third floor of Tower-III of the GH.
Rathi Devi, who lived with her son and daughter, was in a desperate 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 made up 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 to take her to the eighth floor, where she strangled her and dumped the body in a EB room close to the staircase.
Police offical said, "Sunitha’s hyoid bone was not broken, which normally broke during strangulation. As her lungs were infected to coronavirus and she had breathing difficulty, Rathi Devi applied mild force and she died immediately," he said.
Sunitha’s decomposed body was found on June 8.