A pawnbroker surrendered before the village administrative (VAO) of Chinnavedampatti in Coimbatore on Thursday, after murdering a woman, who pledged imitation jewellery for gold loan.
The Saravanampatti police arrested the pawnbroker, identified as M. Rajaram (53) of GPM Nagar at Rathinapuri in the city.
The police said that P. Sudha (39) of Samalpatti in Krishnagiri district visited Rajaram’s pawnshop on December 8 and pledged a piece of jewellery for ₹30,000. She visited the shop again on December 9 and 12 when she availed herself of ₹32,000 and ₹75,000 respectively by pledging ornaments. The woman had given her name as Sumathi.
Meanwhile, Rajaram grew suspicious about the ornaments pledged by the woman and got them appraised by a gold appraiser. All the ornaments pledged by the woman for a total sum of ₹1,37,000 were found to be gold-plated ones. He further found out that the address provided by the woman was also fake.
As Rajaram was on the lookout for the woman, she visited the shop again on Wednesday with another piece of jewellery for pledging.
According to the police, Rajaram, his friend Mahendran and others took the woman to a sweets shop run by the former near Athipalayam road at Saravanampatti on Thursday evening and questioned her for pledging imitation jewellery. They assaulted her with PVC pipes and wooden reapers. She died of multiple injuries.
The police said that Rajaram surrendered before Chinnavedampatti VAO G. Pandi (50) and confessed to the murder on Thursday. The VAO handed over the man to the Saravanampatti police. Inspector Nirmala Devi said Rajaram was arrested and remanded. The police were on the lookout for Mahendran and others involved in the crime.Â
Published – December 19, 2025 06:54 pm IST
