CHENNAI: A septuagenarian was allegedly murdered by her son’s estranged paramour, in Porur in the wee hours of Thursday. The alleged killer has been detained by the city police, who claimed to have solved the case.
Police said the victim, Mangalam (76), moved to Shakthi Nagar three months ago from Tiruvarur along with her son Subbiah, an ex-serviceman presently working as nursing assistant at an ESIC Hospital, and his daughter Kanimozhi, a BE graduate, undergoing job training in T Nagar.
Around 3 am on Thursday, Kanimozhi and the landlord Sudhakar Rao woke up to the screams of Mangalam. Kanimozhi saw a masked man leaving the house and found her grandmother lying dead in a pool of blood. When Sudhakar Rao arrived at the spot, Kanimozhi told him that an unidentified person had killed her granny.
Initially, Kanimozhi was suspected to have killed Mangalam as neighbours had witnessed the women quarrelling often. Even on the night before the murder, Kanimozhi and Mangalam had a wordy duel, while Subbiah had gone for night duty. The Porur police took Kanimozhi into the custody on suspicion. However, Kanimozhi was consistent in her replies during the questioning. Further interrogation revealed that Subbiah was earlier in a relationship with Thulasi (42) of Neelankarai, widow of Murugesan, who served along with Subbiah in the Defence. Thulasi and Subbiah are said to have had a live-in relationship for sometime and she had even supported Subbiah financially.
Since Subbiah’s wife was working in Tiruvarur, he had relocated to Chennai for Kanimozhi to undergo her job training.
Subbiah then drifted from Thulasi and became close to another nurse working in a leading multi-specialty hospital in Porur. Upset over this, Thulasi had sent two henchmen to Subbiah’s house a fortnight ago to warn him to get back to her. Meanwhile, in the wee hours on Thursday, Thulasi and two other henchmen reportedly came to the house and murdered Mangalam, claimed police.