TN woman drowns two granddaughters in farm well

VILLUPURAM: A 40-year-old woman with learning difficulties killed her two granddaughters, aged five and one years, by throwing them into a farm well at Thiyagathurugam in Kallakurichi district of Tamil Nadu on Thursday.
A police officer said P Thirugnanasambandham, 39, of Neelamangalam village in Kallakurichi, who works in a Tamil weekly magazine, had married Keerthana, 26, of Thiygathurugam six years ago. The couple had two daughters named T Rishika, 5, and T Amudhini, 1, the officer said.
After his father-in-law, Murugan, died three years ago, his mother-in-law, M Valli, became mentally unstable. She stayed with her daughter and husband at Neelamangalam and underwent treatment
On July 25, Thirugnanasambandam dropped his wife , two daughters and his mother-in-law at Thiygathurugam (his in-law’s place).
Around 4am on Thursday, Keerthana woke up and found her mother and two daughters missing.
She alerted her relatives and neighbours and began to search for her mother and daughters.
Valli returned home after some time. The woman was giving contradictory answers when quizzed by Keerthana and others.
Finally, the woman disclosed that she had thrown both her granddaughters into a farm well located about one km from the house.
On information the Thiyagathurugam police and fire and rescue services personnel rushed to the spot and retrieved the bodies of the two children.
Thiyagathurugam police inspector K Kumar said, “Valli woke up at 2am, carried the sleeping children to the farm well and threw them into the 50-foot-deep well.”
The police booked a case against Valli under Section 304(ii) (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC. Further investigations were on.