The Maduravoyal police on Saturday arrested a 44-year-old man who in a drunken state set ablaze his wife and son last Sunday and ran away.
Maqbool Ali, 44, from Kolkata, had come to the city a few years ago and was living with his family in a rented house at Noombal. He quit his job and took to drinking. While his wife Koresha Begam, 40, and son Akram Ali, 21, worked in a shoe company, his daughter was studying in Class 7 in a private school.
The police said that his wife refused to allow him inside the house as he was jobless and had turned an alcoholic. He used to quarrel with his wife, under the influence of alcohol, and used to sleep outside the house.
Early Sunday, he set his family on fire after pouring petrol on them. He then fled from the spot.
A special team of police personnel nabbed him in Ambattur on Saturday morning.