COIMBATORE: A 28-year-old woman was hacked to death allegedly by her husband at a private women’s hostel in the city on Sunday morning. Police said the man then took a ‘selfie’ of himself with her body and posted it as his WhatsApp status while waiting for the cops to arrest him.
The deceased has been identified as B Sripriya (28) of Tharuvai near Melapalayam in Tirunelveli district. Her estranged husband, S Balamurugan (32), allegedly posed with her body and posted the photo as his WhatsApp status with a message claiming she had betrayed him.
Other women at the hostel, who had fled for their lives after Balamurgan’s alleged attack, called the police. Balamurugan was waiting at the scene when the cops arrived, Rathinapuri police, who arrested him, said.
Accused came to meet wife at her hostel with sickle
According to the police, due to marital disputes, last year Sripriya had separated from Balamurugan and moved from Tirunelveli to her mother’s house in Ganapathy, Coimbatore, with their two children.
After a disagreement with her mother, Sripriya left her children in her mother’s care and moved to the private women’s hostel near Gandhipuram, they said.
She was working at a store in city. Police said that Balamurugan claimed to have learned that Sripriya was in a relationship with one of his relatives and quarrelled with her over the phone.
He arrived in Coimbatore on Sunday morning and went to meet Sripriya at her hostel with a sickle, police said. At the waiting hall, Balamurugan met his wife when an argument broke out between them, he took out the sickle and hacked Sripriya to death, they added.
Rathinapuri police have sent Sripriya’s body to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for postmortem examination. A case has been registered and further investigation is under way.