CHENNAI: Frustrated by his inability to care for his 71-year-old mother, a wheelchair user, a 44-year-old man pushed her onto the railway tracks in front of an approaching express train at Manavur railway station in the Tiruvallur district on Tuesday night, killing her on the spot.
The victim, S Padmavathi, was run over by the Yelagiri Express, which doesn’t have a stoppage at the station, and her dismembered body and the wheelchair were later spotted on the tracks by passengers.
The accused, S Parthasarathy, was arrested for murder by the Arakkonam Government Railway Police on Wednesday and remanded in custody. Padmavathi had been suffering from neurofibromatosis, a condition that causes lumps to develop in the body.
Her husband, a former central government employee, died in 2007. She was receiving a monthly family pension of Rs 15,000. Parthasarathy, the youngest of her three sons, was taking care of her and his unmarried, disabled elder brother at their house in Manavur.
Man took help to carry mom before murder
Police said Parthasarathy, who worked as a contract employee at the Heavy Vehicles Factory in Avadi and earned around Rs 12,000 a month, was also facing financial difficulties.
His wife and two daughters allegedly got separated from him because of his drinking. He was also unable to send them any money, police said.
Padmavathi had been admitted to Tiruvallur GH on August 6 after falling ill and was discharged on August 16. Parthasarathy took her home but her continued illness and dependency on him added to his frustration. She was seriously ill and unable to speak.
On Tuesday evening, he allegedly took his mother in a wheelchair from their house to Manavur railway station. He sought the help of passengers to carry the wheelchair up the steps to the platform and took her to Platform 3, where express trains pass through. When passengers questioned him about taking his mother to the isolated platform, he allegedly told them that he was taking her to their native place.
Around 7 pm, as the Yelagiri Express approached the station, Parthasarathy allegedly pushed his mother and fled. Passersby later spotted her body and alerted the railway police. Her body was sent to Arakkonam GH for postmortem.
CCTV footage from the station helped police identify Parthasarathy. The RPF informed the Arakkonam GRP, following which a team led by inspector Kavitha traced and arrested him near his house on Wednesday.