Tamil Nadu: 17-year-old beheads friend over love affair

TUTICORIN: Police arrested a 17-year-old boy in Tuticorin district on Monday for murdering his friend over a triangular love.
The deceased has been identified as P Madankumar, 22, a painter from Stalin Colony in Kovilpatti, who went missing from his house on July 29 and was found murdered – with his head severed -- at Manthithoopu the next morning.
After inquiries, the Kovilpatti West police narrowed down on the teenager who hailed from another village.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that the duo were friends and worked together as painters. Police said that the victim, as well as the accused, liked the same girl.
The 16-year-old girl, a school dropout after Class VIII, was texting both of them but was closer to Madankumar.
“The teenager considered Madankumar a threat to his love and decided to murder him. The boy had set a trap to murder Madankumar before inviting him for a drink on July 29. He hid a machete in bushes at Manthithoopu,” superintendent of police S Jayakumar said.
The friends arrived on separate two-wheelers and started drinking.
The boy waited for Madankumar to get drunk. He beheaded Madankumar from behind while the latter was looking at his mobile phone.
He threw the machete into a nearby pond. Police took the accused to the tank and retrieved the machete on Monday.
The teenager was taken to a home for children in conflict with the law.
Earlier, SP Jayakumar visited the spot and a special team was formed to nab the accused. The body was sent to the Kovilpatti government hospital for postmortem.