Coimbatore: A 54-year-old
man surrendered
before the police on Saturday in connection with the murder of his 78-year-old father-in-law, who was found dead with a head injury at
Aliyar near Pollachi
on Thursday night. Police and
forensic experts
initially suspected it to be a case of hit and run. It was later established that the elderly man had died of brain damage, caused due to a fracture on the left side of the skull.
On Saturday, A Krishnamoorthy, of
Sivamani Street
at Kottur near Pollachi, surrendered before the
Kottur police
and confessed to the crime. Police said he, in an inebriated state, attacked and killed his father-in-law P Arumugam alias Arusamy, using a boulder.
Police said Krishnamoorthy, a waterman with the public works department (PWD), had forgotten about the incident. When he regained his memory on Saturday, he surrendered.
Arumugam was found dead on a street at Aliyar on Thursday night. The body was later set to the Pollachi government hospital for postmortem. The report revealed that the deceased died due to brain damage, caused by a fracture on the left side of the skull.
Suspecting it to be a hit and run case, the police had registered a case under Section 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 304(A) (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
After postmortem, the body washanded over to the kin of the deceased. It was then buried at the Chinnampalayam burial ground in Pollachi on Friday.
According to Krishnamoorthy's confession to the police, on Thursday night Krishnamoorthy and Arumugam, both drunk, were returning to their homes on his motorcycle. A quarrel broke out among the duo and Krishnamoorthy asked Arumugam to get down from the motorcycle.
Following this, Arumugam started verbally abusing his son-in-law, who in a fit of rage attacked Arumugam with a boulder. Unaware of the fatality of the injury, Krishnamoorthy left his father-in-law on the street and decided to head to his work station.
Krishnamoorthy did not return home on Friday and forgot about the incident. When he returned home on Saturday, he was informed that Arumugam was found dead with head injuries. He suddenly remembered that he had assaulted Arumugam and decided to surrender.
The Kottur police handed him over to the Aliyar police who recorded his statements. Based on his confessional statement, the case was altered to Section 302 (murder) of the IPC on Saturday. Krishnamoorthy was arrested and remanded in judicial custody.