THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police on Sunday arrested a 30-year-old man for allegedly smothering to death his girlfriend in a hotel room near Thampanoor. Praveen, from Paravur, was arrested for the murder of his friend Gayathri (24), a native of Veeranakavu near Kattakkada. Gayathri was found dead in the room rented by Praveen on Saturday.
Thampanoor police said that Praveen arrived in the morning, while the woman came by noon. Later in the evening, Praveen tiptoed out of the room and by midnight called the reception pretending to be another person and informed that a death had occurred in room number 107.
The hotel staff opened the room in presence of the cops and found Gayathri lying dead with froth appearing from the mouth and nostrils. The needle of suspicion was on Praveen, who had fled the place secretly.
Even as the cops were tracing his mobile location, Praveen surrendered before Paravur police with the help of a lawyer. DCP Ankit Asokan said the two were in a relationship, and the murder appeared to be a fallout of that. "The exact cause of death will be known after the autopsy," he said.
Another police source said Praveen was already married, and has two children. His wife had resented to his proximity to Gayathri, the source said. The duo earlier worked together in a jewellery shop in the city. Their familiarity soon developed into an affair and this created trouble in Praveen's personal life.
Praveen's wife had informed the matter to the jewellery management as well as Gayathri's family. Following this, Gayathri was forced to leave the job almost eight months ago, while Praveen was transferred to Tamil Nadu. A miffed Praveen has not visited his wife for the past two months, sources added.
Gayathri had moved out of her house a few days ago and later uploaded pictures of her marriage to Praveen at a church. Seeing this, the family filed a man missing complaint on Saturday evening.
The police said the two had an argument in the hotel room following which Gayathri was strangulated using a shawl. "Gayathri suspected that Praveen might move away from her after his transfer to Tamil Nadu. This might have caused the argument," said a police officer.