The decomposing corpses of an elderly couple was found inside their house in Thirumullaivoyal on Ayudha Pooja morning, causing quite a scare in the area. The bodies of Natarajan (70) and Radha Ammal (60) were found by a shopkeeper, Venkatesan, a tenant of the deceased couple.
Venkatesan said he sensed the foul smell when he went to fetch some water from behind their house. Immediately, he called the couple’s son Anbarasu.
Police officials from Tirumullaivoyal recounted how Venkatesan and Anbarasu made their way into the house through the back door and were horrified to find that the elderly husband-wife duo had been dead for a while. While Radha’s body was laid out on the bed, Natarajan’s body was found near the bathroom.
As soon as they called the police in, plenty of people from the neighbourhood swarmed around as all the top police officials from the Ambattur area rushed to the house.
A sniffer dog and a forensic expert were also pressed into service by the police.
Natarajan, was a former employee of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). He retired from service a decade ago. Other than the house he lived in, he had also built and leased out several commercial spaces, the income from which, provided for his family.
The police removed the bodies and a post-mortem was subsequently conducted. “The exam showed that they had consumed poison and might have passed away at least 12-15 hours prior to when they were discovered,” a police official said.
The police confirmed that there were no bodily injuries or wounds to suggest foul play.
Eventually both cases were registered as suicides and the police have concluded that there was nothing more to it. “The son told us that they had had a very stormy marriage and were always fighting about something. This discord might have pushed them to commit suicide,” speculated a senior policeman who handled the case.
