Brutal murder of South Indian star Rani Padmini

CHENNAI: October marks the 36th death anniversary of the brutal murder of Ranipadmini, a popular actress of South Indian cinema in the 1980s. Rani Padmini was only 24 years old when she was killed. Rani Padmini was brutally murdered along with her 42-year-old mother Indira when she was at the peak of her career. The details of the incident is as follows:

Ranipadmini was born in Anna Nagar, Madras. Rani's mother Indira's passion for cinema brought her daughter to cinema. She desperately wanted her daughter to achieve what she could not achieve. When her attempts to become a heroine in Hindi cinema failed, mother and daughter came to Madras to try their luck. Upon arrival, Padmini and her mother Indira rented a luxury bungalow at 18 Avenue in Anna Nagar. Then they gave an ad in the newspaper showing that they needed three employees. It was a wrong decision.

Three people had come to work after seeing Rani Padmini's newspaper advertisement. for job positions of watchman, cook and driver. After seeing the advertisement, a man named Japraj came work as the driver. Exactly one month after this, a man named Lakshminarasimhan came to work as the watchman. Lakshminarasimhan was convicted several times in car theft case. Japaraj and Lakshminarasimhan were friends. They were followed by a cook named Ganesan.

Ranipadmini started her film career by living in Anna Nagar. She made her film debut in 1981 with 'Kathayariyathe'. But the film did not get much attention. Rani Padmini rose to stardom with the movie 'Sangarsham' of PG Vishwambharan. Later, she became the heroine of Tamil and Telugu films. As her star value and money increased, she wanted to own the rental house where she lived. Rani Padmini contacted Prasad, who had arranged the house for them. They also promised to pay the money as cash. Realizing this, Japraj guessed that there was a large amount of money and gold in Rani's house. He planned to kill the mother and daughter to get it. He also included watchman and cook in the plan.

Rani Padmini and her mother were brutally murdered on the morning of October 15, 1986. They used to drink at night. That night the mother and daughter were drunk. Meanwhile, Japraj stabbed Indira as Rani Padmini went to the kitchen. There were more than a dozen stab wounds on her body. Rani Padmini after hearing her mother's screams reached the spot and saw her lying in a pool of blood, stabbed in the neck and abdomen. They brutally stabbed Padmini, 12 times in the chest, as she tried to escape. But nobody came to know about the murder. As mentioned earlier, broker Prasad went to Ranipadmini's house. But when the bell rang and no one opened it, Prasad started to return. Meanwhile, he noticed a bad smell. Two corpses were found in decomposed form in the bathroom. The postmortem was performed in the bathroom itself, as it could have been torn to pieces. The bodies were wrapped in the trunk of a car as an ambulance was not available to take them to the hospital No one came to collect the bodies of the two. They were eventually taken to the Film Parishad and buried in Madras.

Rani Padmini's Nissan car worth around Rs 7 lakh went missing following the murder. This is what turned the attention of police to the driver. All three were later arrested. Chengalpet district judge sentenced all three to death. But the Supreme Court reduced it to life imprisonment. The Madras High Court last considered the case on December 14, 2017. However, three decades after the murder, the Madras High Court ordered Lakshminarasimhan's release. The action was taken on a habeas corpus petition filed by Lakshminarasimhan's wife. Japraj died while in jail. Some Tamil newspapers had reported that Ganesan had escaped from jail. The brutal murder of Rani Padmini shocked the entire South Indian film world and it's still not forgotten.