CHENNAI: A diabolic double murder has come to light in Mylapore, almost 18 months after a childless couple, both flower merchants, died mysteriously in a span of three days last January.
Now it turns out that the deceased, Meenakshi and her husband Dharmalingam, were poisoned by her younger sister Mythili who gave them food laced with ‘paraquat dichloride’, a herbicide. Mythili and her husband Balamurugan, then her boyfriend, were arrested on Saturday and are now in judicial custody.
Since January 2017, when the two were hospitalised and died of severe boils in their vocal cords and food pipe, till her arrest, Mythili had withdrawn Rs 17 lakh from her sister’s bank accounts, and also inherited her property by using a forged will.
She decided to kill the couple and take over their cash and immovable assets, as they disapproved of her relationship with Balamurugan. In the end, it was Mythili’s haste to swindle all assets of her elder sister that alerted Dharmalingam’s brother Kumar, who went to the police.
Police investigation into Dharmalingam’s death hit a dead end as Meenakshi herself told the investigators that her husband might have died on January 14, 2017, of alcoholism. However, two days later, Meenakshi herself died of similar ailments in food pipe. Deputy commissioner of police of Mylapore P Saravanan said though doctors confirmed finding similar traces of poison in the bodies of Meenakshi and Dharmalingam, the police could not zero in on the culprit.
Mythili, meanwhile, continued her flower vending business without any sign of culpability.
The needle of suspicion turned towards her after police found multiple cheques ‘signed’ by Meenakshi encashed in different cities. After detaining at least four people who helped encash the cheques, police gain questioned Mythili who finally spilled the beans. Balamurugan bought ‘paraquat dichloride’ and she mixed it in food she fed Dharmalingam and Meenakshi on December 30, 2016, Mythili told investigators. Soon after, boils erupted all over their vocal chords and food pipe. Dharmalingam died on January 14, while Meenakshi died on January 16.
Paraquat dichloride, or “paraquat,” is one of the most widely used herbicide used to control weeds in agricultural and non-agricultural sites, say doctors. Ingestion of paraquat can be fatal, and dermal/eye contact can have serious lasting effects. ‘’Diagnosis can be tough when there is no proper history or nonspecific clinical features, ‘’ said a senior doctor at Rajiv Gandhi government general hospital.
Representative image