Man Murders Wife, Stuffs Body in Drum and Buries it in Tiruvallur

Chennai: A 30-year-old man was arrested for allegedly killing his wife, who was found buried and stuffed in a drum near a cemetery in neighboring Tiruvallur district, police said on Wednesday. Tiruvallur district Superintendent of Police Vivekananda Shukla said that the man, identified as Silambarasan, confessed to the crime.

“He confessed to strangling her to death on August 14 and dumping her body about 3 km away from their house,” Shukla said. According to the information obtained, the police found the body. According to the SP, Silambarasan suspected his wife Priya, 26, of having several affairs. “Our investigations revealed that the couple had frequent fights due to this,” Shukla said.

The person who lodged a missing complaint with Arambakkam Police was Priya’s father Srinivasan, the SP added. “When she couldn’t contact her daughter, she suspected something was wrong,” Shukla said.

Police said that just before she went missing, Priya went to her parents’ house in Pudupalayam near Arani and told them that she wanted to separate from her husband. But her family persuaded her to return to her husband, police said.

When Priya’s two sons told their father that they had not seen their mother for nearly two months, Srinivasan immediately decided to go to the police. “When we questioned Silambarasan, he kept changing his story, so we got suspicious and started digging deeper. Finally, he confessed,” the SP said.

A murder case was registered and Silambarasan was remanded for 15 days, the SP said. “Prima facie, we have established the motive: We suspect his wife due to extramarital affairs. The body has been sent for autopsy, once the results are out, we can tie up the loose ends. We are also looking at other possibilities,” added Shukla.