Tamil Nadu: Guest worker murders cousin for his wife, held

COIMBATORE: A guest worker and his friend were arrested on Monday for murdering his cousin, who fought with him for having an extra-marital affair with his wife, on Sunday night.
The Periyanaickenpalayam police identified the accused as Mukesh Sahni, 34, a native of Bihar, and his friend Deva alias Kubendran, of Mathampalayam. Both of them were construction workers.
An investigation officer said the two were arrested for murdering S Sanjay Choudry, 38, a native of Bihar, on Sunday night. “Choudry was Sahni’s cousin.”
He said Choudry was working with a private firm at Mathampalayam near Periyanaickenpalayam. “His wife had left him to live with Sahni.”
According to the officer, Choudry’s wife has been living with Sahni at a rental house at Mathampalayam for the past few months. “Choudry often visited his wife and requested her to come back. This didn’t go down well with Sahni and he decided to finish off Choudry, with the help of Deva.”
On Sunday night, the officer said, the duo took Choudry to an isolated place at Bharathi Nagar and consumed liquor. Later, Sahni and Deva assaulted Choudry and strangulated him with a cloth.
On Monday, local villagers came across the dead body of Choudry on Gudalur Kavundampalayam-Kattanji Hills road with minor injuries and alerted the Periyanickenpalayam police, who sent the same to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for postmortem.
V Badrinarayanan, district superintendent of police, subsequently formed six special teams led by deputy superintendent of police (Periyanaickenpalayam sub-division) Namashivayam to crack the case.
While Sahni and Deva were arrested on Monday itself, they were remanded in judicial custody on Tuesday.