Chennai man strangles estranged lover, dumps body; arrested days later

CHENNAI: Irate over his lover, a married woman, ending her relationship with him, a 37-year-old man murdered her and dumped her body in a secluded area near Guduvanchery a week ago.

The police, who were probing a missing complaint from the woman's husband, secured the accused based on suspicion and learnt during interrogation that she was murdered. The officials recovered the decomposed body on Saturday.

The accused, Kumaresan, was involved in a relationship with the victim, S Selvarani (38) of Nallambakkam near Vandalur. The deceased was working as a housekeeping staff at an apartment complex, where the accused lived as a tenant.

The investigations by the police revealed that Kumaresan was involved in the relationship with Selvarani for a few years, which he continued even after getting married three years ago.

However, after he found out about the extra-marital affair, Selvarani's husband confronted her. After that, she stopped talking to the accused. But Kumaresan refused to accept it and continued to harass her by repeatedly calling her over the phone.

On March 3, Selvarani left for work but did not return home. After searching for a while, which proved futile, her husband filed a missing person complaint with the local police. During investigation, the police analysed the woman's movements and her call history with the help of data obtained from the telecom service provider. Based on that, the police zeroed in on Kumaresan and interrogated him after which he spilled the beans.

The probe by the police revealed that Kumaresan forced Selvarani to meet him on some false pretext and then strangulated her to death with her own dupatta. He then dumped her body in a secluded area in Guduvanchery.

The accused was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.