Chennai man kills wife after argument over boozing on New Year's eve

CHENNAI: City Police on Tuesday arrested a 32-year-old man for allegedly murdering his wife after an argument over consuming alcohol on New Year's eve and later staged it as if she died by suicide at their residence in Tondiarpet.

The couple- M Nandakumar and K Sabitha (31) were married ten years ago and lived with their two kids at Karunanidhi Nagar in Tondiarpet. Nandakumar works in a private firm, while Sabitha was a housewife. On New Year's eve, Sabitha went to her parent's house with her kids and returned on January 1.

On learning that Nandakumar had consumed alcohol with his friends on December 31, Sabitha picked up an argument with her husband, police investigations revealed.

Police said that Nandakumar's alcoholism had been an issue between the couple for a few years now and him boozing on New year's eve did not sit well with his wife. Around 8 30 pm on January 1, the couple entered into an argument and hours later, Nandakumar ran to his neighbours claiming that his wife killed herself.

RK Nagar Police who took over investigations moved the woman's body to Government Stanley medical college hospital for post-mortem.

"The autopsy report mentioned that Sabitha died of strangulation. We picked up Nandakumar for enquiry who confessed to have strangulated her," said a senior police officer. Police investigations revealed that Sabitha had locked herself in a room threatening to kill herself and Nandakumar had barged into the room and assaulted her. He then strangulated her with a cloth. He then tied the cloth to the window grill and staged it as a suicide.

RK Nagar police who had initially registered a case of suspicious death under CrPC 174 changed the section to murder and arrested Nandakumar. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.