Businessman wife and cousin held for maid’s murder

CHENNAI: A businessman’s wife and her cousin have been arrested for murder after an 18-year-old maid in their Adyar residence — viciously beaten and scalded with boiling water — died early on Thursday.


Sushmitha Priya, 46, and her cousin, Mithrachini, 20, both originally from

Malaysia

, were taken into custody after Priya’s husband, Muruganandham, 50, alerted the police when Mahalakshmi died hours after he returned home at midnight on Wednesday, investigators said.

Appalled to discover that Mahalakshmi had been severely harmed, Muruganandham told police that he suspected his wife was responsible for the woman’s death, a police officer said.

Police arrested the two women from their posh bungalow in Shastri Nagar, Adyar. “The businessman had hired the maid from Andhra Pradesh three years ago through an agency to take

care

of their son and do household chores,” the officer said.

“Priya and Mithrachini admitted to beating the maid,” he said. “They claimed that Mahalakshmi had physically abused Priya’s eightyear-old son, Sai Balaji. They also alleged that she killed their dogs, a

Labrador retriever

and a Pomeranian, two weeks earlier.”

Women had admitted to beating maid, pouring hot water on her, say police

Priya and Mithrachini told investigators they were overcome with anger when they saw Mahalakshmi attack Sai Balaji. The women said they beat up the maid and confinedher in a room andthey also admitted to pouring hot water on her, police said.

“The torture left Mahalakshmi bedridden for four days before she died at 2am on Thursday,” the officer said. When Mahalakshmi fell seriously ill, the pair panicked and decidedtotakeher to a hospital, he said. On the way, however, they realized that they would get into trouble and returned home. Priya asked a nurse, Mariam, from a private hospital in Adyar to come home and tend to the stricken maid. When Mariam arrived, Priya and Mithrachini told her that the maid had accidentally poured hot water on herself and had a bad bout of diarrhoea. The nurse put Mahalakshmi on intravenous fluids before she left the house.

“When Muruganandham returned home, his wife and her cousin told him that the maid was unwell,” the officer said. “He asked them why they did not take her to a hospital andthey did nothave a convincing explanation.”

Shortly after midnight, Mahalakshmi’s pulse got fainter. She died around 2am. “Investigations revealed that Priya and Mithrachini had switched off all six surveillance cameras in the house,” the officer said. “That looks suspiciously like an attempt to conceal wrongdoing.” The Sashtri Nagar police initially registered a suspicious death and later altered thecase murder,under IPC Section 302. “We are yet to determine if there were other instances of violence against the maid,” he said. “Muruganandham was awayfrom home most of thetime anddoes notknowif his wife ill-treated the maid on earlier occasions.”

The Enforcement Directorate and Central Crime Branch police were investigating Muruganandham in a case of money laundering case, the officer said. “He was away from home on Wednesday because CCB andEDinvestigatorswere questioning him in connection with the inquiry,” he said.