Chennai man murders live-in partner, enacts suicide drama

CHENNAI: Chennai police on Saturday arrested a 21-year-old man for the murder of his live-in partner, a day after he called up the local police station and claimed that the woman was found hanging.

The victim was identified as R Manjula (23) of Vellakovil in Thanjavur district. Police said that Manjula was employed with a call centre in the city. She moved into a house in Chintadripet with the accused, M Santosh Kumar, three months ago.

Police investigation revealed that Santosh Kumar used to quarrel with the woman often, over her spending too much time on the phone. On Friday, he fought with Manjula and in the melee, he strangled her with her duppatta. He then called the police and claimed that Manjula killed herself. On noticing bruise marks on Manjula’s body, police investigated Santosh further and found that she was murdered. The man was arrested and remanded in judicial custody.