Cops Crack Case

The unnamed author of this article in the May 1 New Indian Express practices his writing skills:

The City police today claimed to have cracked the mystery behind the murder of a woman resident of New Street in Mylapore… 34-year old Vidya was found in her home with her neck slashed on January 7… Vidya’s sister told the police that a local rowdy, ‘Naina’ Suresh was seen regularly with the victim in the recent past as she had to pay Rs. 20,000 demanded by him…

Police made inquiries on the life style of Vidya… Vidya had a luxurious life style and for keeping the cash flow, she was into a bit of the flesh trade too.

She used the services of autorickshaw driver Barani Kumar to act as a pimp…. In the process, she earned the friendship of vegetable merchant Padmanabhan.

The two developed an intimate relationship and Vidya was bold enough to even go to the residence of Padmanabhan at Alwarpet and knock his door at odd hours and to insult the merchant in front of his wedded wife.

Padmanabhan made up his mind to do away with her….

One of my favourite Indian-English words is ‘rowdy,’ along with its extended version, ‘rowdy sheeter.’ Whenever police see a potential for civil disturbance – on the eve of elections, for example – they round up the rowdy sheeters (people who have a police record for petty crimes). Last year a group of Chennai rowdy sheeters took a public oath to reform, and were removed from the rowdy sheeters’ list. Critics claimed that only the most aged and inactive rowdies participated in the ceremony.