A labourer who murdered his wife on Sunday night and attempted to conceal the crime by projecting her death as a natural occurrence was arrested on Monday by the airport police when his relatives were performing the last rites.
The couple Ramakrishnan (43) and Rani (40), parents of three daughters, had quarrelled over an illicit affair that he had with another woman. In a fit of rage, Ramakrishnan was said to have beaten up Rani and inflicted a fatal head injury.
On information from locals of Mariamman Koil Street that the last rites of the deceased were being performed under suspicious circumstances, the police took possession of the body and had the post-mortem conducted at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital.
The police team recovered the cloth used to wipe blood from the deceased’s head in a burnt condition. The police arrested the accused who went absconding for a while subsequently, but spared his relatives.
