Man succumbs to burns, sister in custody now faces murder charge

CHENNAI: The 63-year-old man who was set on fire by his sister over a property dispute succumbed to burn injuries, following which the police on Monday altered the section to murder and arrested the woman.

The accused, Dhanalakshmi (60), allegedly set her brother, Munirathnam afire during the early hours of Sunday, as he was allegedly a hindrance to her acquiring an ancestral property at Perambur.

Munirathnam has two sisters, Dhanalakshmi and Bhagyalakshmi. After Bhagyalakshmi died a couple of years ago, the ancestral property was left for Munirathnam and his sister to share. Munirathnam’s wife is staying with a relative in Andhra Pradesh where she is undergoing treatment for a health ailment.

Munirathnam was staying on the first floor of the ancestral property on Sabapathy Street, while his Dhanalakshmi was staying on the ground floor and Bhagyalakshmi’s husband Damodaran and son Udayakumar were living on the second floor of the house.

Munirathnam filed a case against Dhanalkshmi after he learnt that she has taken possession of the property and the case is pending in the court. Police said that the woman set her sleeping brother afire, as she believed that the case would be ruled in his favour.

Damodaran who heard Munirathnam’s cries rescued him and moved him to a hospital. The Thiru vi ka Nagar police, who had earlier registered a case of attempt to murder, altered the case to murder and arrested Dhanalakshmi.