Chennai: A day after the mutilated body parts of a Chennai man was found packed in a suitcase near Pennadam, in Cuddalore district, the police cracked the case by arresting an electrician in the city.

The electrician, G. Velmurugan (30) of Ambattur, had murdered the man, E. Venkata Rao, brutally in a lodge at Chintadripet before chopping his body into pieces and dumping it in his native village, Pasikulam, in Cuddalore, investigations revealed.

Velmurugan, who had mounting debts, lured the deceased, promising to help him get a government job and murdered him and took the Rs 1 lakh he had brought along.

Rao’s phone records and a pillow cover recovered from the bag led police to the Malliga lodge in Chintadripet, where CCTV footages confirmed the accused checking into the room on the second floor around 7.30 pm on December 10.

Rao, who worked as a supervisor of Smart Security Services in Saidapet, was reported missing from his home in Pulianthope the same night. Investigations revealed that Velmurugan befriended Rao of Pulianthope through his father Govinda Raj, an ATM guard.

After learning that the deceased was trying to land a government job, he promised that he will help him get one through his contacts and asked him to get Rs 1 lakh as initial payment. A meeting was set up at the lodge on December 10.

“The accused had indented to murder the man for gain and came fully prepared for it,” a police officer said. The man carried with him an iron rod, hacksaw blades and other weapons. On the fateful night, Rao checked into the lodge around 9 pm. He was carrying the cash with him. Around 10.30 pm, when Rao dozed off, waiting for the ‘contact’, the accused hit him with an iron rod, killing him.

He later dragged the body to the washroom and cut his torso and limbs and washed the entire area with detergent to leave no trace of the murder. He later packed the mutilated parts in polythene bags and left the lodge around 1 am in an autorickshaw to the airport from where he boarded an SUV to his native place, Pasikulam.

After dumping the body near a canal there, he quietly returned to the city the next day by bus and went on with his life in Ambattur. The police said the man confessed to have committed the murder for money. He was remanded in judicial custody.