THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A 'suicide' case turned out to be a murder after a 26-year-old youth was arrested by Pothencode police in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday for strangling his 19-year-old wife to death after forcefully giving her liquor following a heated argument.
He had also hung his wife on a ceiling fan to create an impression to others that she had committed suicide. The deceased is Ragendu, a native of Vettinad near Vembayam and the arrested is Adarsh, a native of Vamanapuram.
According to Pothencode police, the incident took place on Monday night at theri residence in Nannattukavu near Pothencode. Adarsh and Ragendu married each other after eloping from home in January and they were residing at the rented residence here. However, Ragendu wanted to see her parents and insisted on Adarsh to return home. This triggered frequent quarreling between the couple for a while.
On Monday, Adarsh came home drunk and had brought a bottle of liquor with him. This triggered a fight between the two and Adarsh force-fed liquor to his wife. Eventually, he strangled her to death and hung her up on a ceiling fan using a cloth as if she had committed suicide.
He later took her to the hospital to misguide others and to evade suspicion. The police had also initially thought it could be a suicide. But the post-mortem examination revealed that her body had other injuries too. Therefore, Adarsh was interogated and he was subjected to interrogation following suspicion. Thus he later confessed his crime on Friday night and the arrest was recorded on Saturday morning. He has also been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. The body of Ragendu was handed over to relatives.