A woman, Gunasundari, wife of a Special Sub-Inspector of Police, Poonkodi, was on Sunday booked on a charge of setting a widow on fire to death, following an illegal relationship the deceased is said to have with the SSI.
Usilampatti Town police have also booked the SSI, attached to Vikramangalam police station, on a charge of abetment.
The police said that Gunasundari, along with a few others, had gone to the house of Pilliammal (45) at U. Vadipatti under Uthapanaikanur and picked a quarrel with her. The woman was later found with burn injuries at her house and rushed to Usilampatti Government Hospital. The police had booked her and others, including the SSI, for attempt to murder and abetting to commit suicide.
“Pilliammal in her dying declaration had accused Gunasundari and another woman of having set her ablaze,” Superintendent of Police Vijayendra Bidari said. As she died in the afternoon, the police altered the case to murder and abetment.
The deceased, a widow, was a mother of three children.
Woman commits suicide
In another case reported in Austinpatti in rural police limits on Saturday, a woman from Andhra Pradesh, committed suicide by self-immolation.
The police said that the woman, Bharathi (25) of Srikkakulam, was allegedly living with one Kannan, with whom she developed intimacy.
The woman, who had been living with her husband here, left him after they went back to Andhra Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Kannan’s wife Ananthi and his mother had gone to Bharati’s house at Indira Nagar in Thanakkankulam. When they asked Bharati, living on the first floor, to come down, she went inside the house and locked herself inside.
The women threatened to call the police if she did not turn up.
Suddenly, Bharathi doused herself with kerosene and set herself ablaze. Austinpatti police have registered a case of suspicious death and are investigating.
