S Sankar Sahayaraj, who is in police custody,  married B Jecintha Josephine, (28), a resident of Thanjavur, nine months ago. The couple lived in Kattur.

  

Police said Jecintha was not keen on pursuing a conjugal relationship with Sankar and this led to frequent quarrels between them. A few months ago, after one such argument, Jecintha left for Thanjavur. In the beginning of October, Sankar had reportedly patched up with Jecintha and brought her back. However, the couple bickered over the same issue.

 

On Sunday, Sankar’s mother was shocked to find blood stains all over her son, when she found him in the living room. Fearing the worst, she rushed to the couple’s bedroom to find Jecintha’s body lying in a pool of blood on the bed, with her severed head near it. Although she raised an alarm, Sankar had fled even as his father and their neighbours reached the spot.

 

After Thiruverumbur police retrieved the body, Sankar was arrested. In his confession, he said despite repeated pleading, Jecintha did not consent to his advances, hence he attempted to strangle her to death. However, when he saw she was still alive, he decapitated her with a kitchen knife on Saturday night. Police said he spent the night with the body.