Tamil Nadu: Woman gets live-in partner murdered with lover's help; body found buried inside temple

Chennai: Driven by her desire to continue her affair with her lover, a 28-year-old woman hatched a plan to eliminate her live-in partner and after getting him murdered, she attempted to mislead the police by filing a missing complaint. The incident took place in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore district.

According to the police, Manjula, a native of V Andikuppam, entered into a live-in relationship with Kannadasan (35), a resident of Tiruvalluvar Nagar in Panruti, five years ago after separating from her husband. Manjula and a 52-year-old astrologer, identified as Gopinath, developed a relationship while she was living with Kannadasan.

Woman decides to eliminate live-in partner

When Kannadasan discovered about Manjula's affair with Gopinath, he asked her to call it off. However, she refused to do it.

The issue led to frequent arguments between them. Later, Manjula hatched a plan to eliminate Kannadasan with Gopinath's help as she wanted to continue her affair with the latter.

As per the plan, Kannadasan was invited by Gopinath for discussing the issue. When Kannadasan arrived, Gopinath, along with his friend named Tirupathi, battered him to death with iron rods. They then buried the body inside a local temple's storeroom, according to a report by The Times of India.

Woman files missing complaint

Later, Manjula filed a complaint, urging police to find her partner. Police grew suspicious of her involvement in the crime as her statements were not consistent. Thereafter, police subjected her to sustained interrogation, which led to her confessing the crime. She told the police that Kannadasan was murdered by Gopinath and Tirupathi on August 12 and they had buried his body in the temple.

Victim's body exhumed

Panruti Police on Thursday arrested Manjula and Gopinath. On Friday morning, the victim's body was exhumed in the presence of DSP A Babu Prasanth and inspector K Ambedkar. Tirupathi is absconding and efforts are on to nab him.