Woman and lover held for murder of her live-in partner; body buried in TN temple storeroom

CUDDALORE: Police have arrested a 28-year-old woman and her 52-year-old lover on charges of murdering her live-in partner and burying the body in the storeroom of a temple near Panruti in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu.
A team of police and revenue officials exhumed the body in the presence of DSP A Babu Prasanth and inspector K Ambedkar on Friday morning and sent it for postmortem.
Police said Kannadasan, 35, of Tiruvalluvar Nagar in Panruti, who was separated from his wife, and Manjula, 28, of V Andikuppam, who was also separated from her husband, had been living together for the past five years. Manjula developed a relationship with Gopinath, 52, an astrologer in the same locality.
On learning about her relationship with another man, Kannadasan insisted her break the affair. But Manjula refused to do so. The two used to quarrel over the issue.
Manjula decided to eliminate Kannadasan to continue her affair with Gopinath. She sought the help of Gopinath and the two hatched a plot to murder Kannadasan.
As per their plan, Gopinath invited Kannadasan to discuss the issue. When Kannadasan met him, Gopinath and his friend Tirupathi, 56, hit Kannadasan on his head with iron rods. Tirupathi is a construction worker.
Kannadasan sustained severe injuries and died on the spot. The two dug a pit in a storeroom of a local temple, buried the body and relaid the floor with concrete. The incident happened on August 12.
Manjula lodged a missing complaint with the Panruti police urging them to trace her partner. Manjula gave contradictory answers to police queries and on sustained interrogation, Manjula revealed that Gopinath and Tirupathi had murdered her live-in partner and buried the body inside the temple.
The police arrested the woman and her lover on Thursday and launched a hunt for Tirupathi, who was absconding.