COIMBATORE: The city police arrested one more suspect in the murder of a 28-year-old woman by her husband at a ladies’ hostel in Coimbatore on Sunday. He was identified as Raja (40) of Ganapathy.
Police said Raja is the maternal uncle of the woman, B Sripriya, who was hacked to death by her estranged husband, S Balamurugan (32) of Tharuvai in Tirunelveli district.
Raja was working as housekeeping staff. Sripriya was staying at a hostel on Raju Naidu Layout near 100 Feet Road in Gandhipuram. Balamurugan, along with Raja, went to the hostel and met the woman at the portico of the hostel.
Police added that earlier on the day of the murder, when Balamurugan was speaking with Raja over a call, he allegedly said that he would murder his wife, owing to her extramarital affair with another man in Coimbatore.
As he did not know the hostel where Sripriya was staying, he asked Raja to show him the hostel, under the pretext that he wanted to convince and bring her back to Tirunelveli.
Despite knowing about Balamurugan’s intentions, Raja allegedly accompanied him to the hostel. Police have invoked the same Section 103 (murder) of the BNS against Raja. He was remanded in judicial custody on Monday.