Cop surrenders after murdering woman in Madurai

MADURAI: A police constable of the Tamil Nadu Special Police Battalion VI in Madurai on Sunday surrendered at the Keeraithurai police station confessing to the murder of his lover in Theni district on Saturday night.
Police said P Saranya, 27, from Madurai, who was working as a forest watcher with Theni district forest division, was found dead at her residence at Bodinayakanur in Theni in the early hours of Sunday. Bodinayakanur Town police were investigating and found the body with injuries to the neck. The body was recovered and sent for post mortem examination.
Meanwhile, around 5 am, police constable V Thirumurugan, 27, from Sadasivam Nagar, Thiruvalluvar Street in Madurai, surrendered at Keeraithurai police station saying he was responsible for murdering Saranya. Subseqiuently, the Theni district police picked up Thirumurugan for inquiries.
Police said Saranya and Thirumurugan had allegedly been in an illicit relationship and a dispute over it is suspected to have led to the murder. Saranya was married and had two children. Her husband died a few years ago in a road accident and her children were staying with her parents even as she stayed alone in Theni. Thirumurugan and Saranya had reportedly met when they were both in Madurai and developed a relationship. Thirumurugan was also married but had separated from his wife.
Police said that on Saturday night, the couple had a dispute over their relationship and that Thirumurugan allegedly shoved Saranya and strangled her to death before fleeing to Madurai. Bodinayakanur Town police had initially registered a case of suspicious death under Section 174 CrPC. However, based on Thirumurugan’s official statement to Theni police, it is likely to be altered to a case of murder.