About 12 hours after the Tamil Nadu police apprehended 22-year old Ramkumar as a suspect in the sensational Swathi murder case in Chennai, the Chennai city police has divulged more details about the motive of the crime at a press conference on Saturday morning.

Speaking to reporters, police commissioner TK Rajendran said that according to their investigation, Ramkumar was interested in Swathi and infatuated with her. But she did not reciprocate, and this seems to have spurred him to hack her to death.

“Ramkumar was regularly following Swathi and was interested in her. It is when he realised that it was not reciprocated, that he committed the murder,” said Rajendran.

The police have refused to share what evidence is available against Ramkumar.

The police said that he had no accomplices in the crime as per their investigation.

Investigations took place in Choolaimedu, Nungambakam, her work place and also on the route in which she travelled. We investigated the case in different angles and were able to narrow down on the suspect.

He further said that Ramkumar slashed his throat to scare the police. “We secured Ramkumar near his house. As police reached his house, he tried committing suicide by slashing his throat. Police immediately took him to Tenkasi Govt hospital for first aid and admitted him in Tirunelveli govt hospital for treatment,” he said.

A press release from the city police said that they have obtainted footage from 5 CCTV cameras around Nungambakkam police station.