Woman and family kill brother-in-law for helping estranged hubby trace her

ERODE

: A 28-year-old woman and seven of her family members were arrested for beating her brother-in-law to death here on Friday evening for helping her husband reunite with her after a family feud.


M Lakshmi, 28, of Periyasemur; her parents K Pappammal, 62, and T Kannaiyan, 72; sisters A Jothimani, 35, and P Parameswari, 32; brothers K Murthy, 30, and M Kumaresan, 40 of Veerappanchatram; and her cousin K Annadurai, 50, were held for murdering M Selvakumar, 25, of

Periyasemur

.

According to C Murugaiyan, inspector with the

Veerappanchatram

police station, Lakshmi was married to Manikandan, 32. “On August 3, she left him following a family dispute.”

Manikandan, with the help of his brother Selvakumar, traced the whereabouts of Lakshmi, who was staying with her relatives at Sankari in Salem, and brought her back to their house on August 6. “Lakshmi developed an enmity with Selvakumar when she learned that it was he who helped her husband trace her,” the official said.

On Friday morning, Lakshmi picked up a quarrel with Selvakumar and started to beat him using wooden logs. Her relatives also joined and brutally attacked Selvakumar with wooden logs and boulders.

“Someone smashed Selvakumar’s genital parts. He succumbed to his injuries on the spot,” police said, adding, “People on the street recorded the whole episode in their mobile phones.”

Some of them forwarded the video to the Veerappanchatram police, who sent the body to the government hospital in Erode for postmortem.

Having the video as evidence, police initiated probe and arrested all the eight after registering a case under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 506 (ii) (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The eight were produced before a local court, which remanded them in judicial custody. They were subsequently lodged at the

Coimbatore Central Prison

.