Wife, son-in-law held for murder of labourer

Tirunelveli: The Tirunelveli police have arrested a woman and her son-in-law on charges of murdering the former’s husband, from Kovilandanur near Sankarankovil in the district. A manhunt is on for two more accused in their role in the act.

Though the incident happened on Wednesday, the police could only confirm it as murder on Thursday. The deceased was identified as V Thangadurai, 43, from Kovilandanur near Sankarankovil in Tirunelveli District. He was a daily wage labourer in Kerala. His

wife

Selvi, 38, and the couple’s daughter Jayanthi, 19, lived in Kovilandanur.

According to the police, preliminary inquiries revealed that Selvi developed an extramarital affair with Thangaurai’s relative C Gurudiwakar, 24, who has a workshop in the same village. About six months ago, Selvi married her daughter Jayanthi off to Gurudiwakar, the bride’s paternal uncle, despite Thangadurai objecting to it.

The police said Thangadurai and Selvi used to engage in verbal duel, sometimes going onto become physical, over these issues Following this, Gurudiwakar and Selvi hatched plan to eliminate Thangadurai.

On Wednesday, the duo and accomplices Samy and Selvaraj beat up Thangadurai to death and disposed of the body on the outskirts of their village.

The villagers, who found out that Thangadurai was dead, called in Sernthamaram police. They recovered the body and sent it to the Tirunelveli Medical College and Hospital for post-mortem.

The family admitted to murdering Thangadurai following post-mortem reports that he was killed. The police registered a murder case under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and arrested Selvi and Gurudiwakar.