After one year, death of businessman turns out to be murder

After one year, a case of suspicious death of S. Veera Prabhu (26) in Mamsapuram in February 2021 has turned out that the young businessman was murdered.

Investigation has revealed that his wife and her friend, R. Krishna Vignesh, had strangulated him to death and she played out a drama that he died due to ill health.

Meanwhile, within four months, his wife also ended her life in June 2021.

Even as the case remained as a suspicious death, a review of the case by senior police officials upon instruction from Inspector General of Police (South Zone), Asra Garg, revealed some negligence on part of the local police.

"The IG had instructed us to review cases registered under Section 174 of CrPC which had a strong suspicion of foul play. As part of the exercise, when we reviewed, we found that it was a murder," a police officer said.

During the review, the local police had failed to take note of post-mortem report.

During investigation, it was found that Vignesh and Prabhu's wife, who were relatives, had a love affair before her marriage. As their affair continued even after the marriage, it created trouble between the couple.

Consequently, the wife and Vignesh conspired and murdered him by strangulation. The wife took the body claiming that he had fallen ill.

Even as the family members of the deceased started to talk about their illicit relationship, the woman ended her life.

The case was alerted to murder under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code.

"We are examining all the suspicious death cases where the police have strong suspicion. The police have been asked to take action as per the law and further investigate into the case," Mr. Asra Garg said.

He said that the police would dig deeper into such cases to bring the culprits to book.

Those in distress or having suicidal tendencies could seek help and counselling by calling State’s health helpline 104 or Chennai-based Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050.