How welding marks on footwear gave away clues about killer

Killer of a senior citizen in Samantanagar arrested on clues given out by his sandals Nadeem killed scrap-seller old woman Gajalakshmi for her money hid under gunny sack While running away with the money, he left his slippers back that gave clues leading to his arrest.

The slippers with burn marks left at the crime spot gave away the murderer. Recently, Gajalakshmi an old woman scrap seller was murdered at Samatanagara, near Adugodi. A pair of chappals left at the crime site by the killer led to his arrest.

Syed Nadeem alias Chuvvi, a resident of Samatanagar was working in a welding shop. Gajalakshmi from Neelasandra was looking after the scrap selling shop after her husband’s demise. Her son was living separately. Nadeem was living with his family at the EDS housing complex behind Gajalakshmi’s scrap shop.

Nadeem would pick up iron pieces from the welding shop and sell them to Gajalakshmi. He had observed that she was keeping money under a gunny sack. On June 16, Nadeem went near the shop in the night and hid himself in the Sulabh Shouchalay. After the streets became deserted he went to the shop to steal. But two goats that the old woman had made noise and the woman woke up. Nadeem ran away. After waiting for some more time Nadeem went up to the shop again at 3.30 am.

In his confession, he told the police that Gajalakshmi woke up when he was stealing the money and hence he smashed her head with a cement block and hit her face with iron rod, and fled with the money. He went home and changed his blood stained cloths, put them in a plastic bag and threw into a gutter at Neelasandra. He bought new clothes and shoes and also treated his friends to dinner, reports Kannada Prabha.

However, in his hurry to escape, Nadeem had left his chappals at the spot. The police sent the chappals to the Forensic Lab. After examining the sandals, the FSL expert said they belonged to a welder, based on the burn marks and holes in the chappal. The investigating team then visited all the welding shops in the area and questioned the workers there. When they visited a welding shop in Rajendra Nagar, its owner Anjad informed that a worker by name Nadeem had left the job on June 13. Based on the information police spoke to the family and friends and finally located and arrested Nadeem on Tuesday.