In a twist to the death of four persons, including a minor, in Sivakasi on Sunday, the Virudhunagar district police on Monday arrested a woman, D. Valli, 33, sister of one of the deceased, D. Murugan, 27, on the charge of mixing pesticide with chicken gravy in an attempt to kill him.
Murugan had shared the gravy with his half-brother, D. Ayyappan, and others at his house in Lingapuram colony, leading to his death and that of three others. Four others who had consumed the chicken have been admitted to the Government Rajaji hospital.
Valli, who had gone to Irukkangudi, did not expect that the gravy would be shared by Murugan’s friends, Superintendent of Police M. Rajarajan, said.
“Valli has confessed that she wanted to kill her brother Murugan as he was harassing her for the last few days,” he added.
Valli, who had been living with her parents after separating from her husband, had developed friendship with her employer Selvam. The police picked up Mr. Selvam too for interrogation, suspecting that Valli wanted to do away with Murugan as he objected to her relationship with him.
“However, now it is clear that Mr. Selvam has no role in the crime. We have found the leftover chicken gravy and also some quantity of the pesticide at her house,” Mr. Rajarajan said.
Initially, it was suspected that the deaths were caused by consumption of spurious liquor bought from a Tasmac shop. Later, the police claimed that some additives could have been mixed with the liquor for additional intoxication that proved lethal. However, the police found that the bottles left at the spot did not have any trace of poisonous substance.
The police probe took a different angle when the initial post-mortem report revealed that the deceased had consumed pesticide.
“It was then we found that the victims had gone to Murugan’s house and had eaten food there,” the SP said.
