THANJAVUR: Six months after the murder of a woman in an alleged relationship fallout, the father of the woman hacked to death the 30-year-old suspect, who was out on bail in the case, at Melakalakudi village in Thanjavur district early on Saturday.
Police said Punniyamoorthy (53), along with his associates, M Lokesh (22), D Ramalingam (30), all hailing from Alangudi, and A Karuppaiah (55) of Pulavar Natham, entered Ajith Kumar’s house at Melakalakudi around 2 am and hacked him to death on the spot with sickles.
Ajith Kumar, a house painter who was arrested in connection with the murder of P Kaviya, daughter of Punniyamoorthy, on November 27, 2025, had come out on bail a month ago.
Accused handed over 3 sickles to cops
Police said Kaviya, a temporary teacher at a government primary school, was allegedly in a relationship with Ajith Kumar, but her family was against it. After her family had fixed her engagement with a relative on November 23, 2025, Ajith Kumar intercepted Kaviya on her way to school and allegedly stabbed her to death.
A case was registered by the Ammapettai police, and he was remanded to judicial custody. Investigators said the four accused had allegedly conspired to murder Ajith Kumar in retaliation for Kaviya’s killing. After the incident, the four men surrendered at the Ammapettai police station, handing over three sickles believed to have been used in the crime. Police officials visited the scene and sent the body to Thanjavur MCH for postmortem.