Chennai: Two weeks after the Chennai police began investigating a murder after finding limbs at the Pallikaranai dump yard, the identity of the victim, a woman, and the murderer have been established.
The severed hand and two legs found in a gunny bag in Pallikaranai on January 21 shook the city police who formed three teams led by Deputy Commissioner Muthusamy to probe the case.
On Wednesday, the police concluded that the victim was 35-year-old Sandhya, a mother of two children, and a resident of Jafferkhanpet. Sandhya worked as a junior artiste in several Tamil films, sources said.
Describing the difficulties the police had in identifying the woman, the police said that they had only one clue to identify her — a Shiva Parvathi tattoo on her right hand. “Following this, they sent out alerts to police stations across the state to find if there was any information on such a woman among missing person complaints,” said A.K. Vishwanathan, CoP.
“Finally, Thoothukudi police confirmed that a missing complaint was filed by Sandhya's mother and her identity was confirmed,” said A.K. Vishwanathan, Commissioner of Police, speaking to presspersons in Chennai on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the police have arrested Sandhya's husband, Balakrishnan, who works as an assistant director in the film industry, for committing the murder. “Sandhya fell in love and married Balakrishnan in 2002. But they had serious differences of opinion and used to fight a lot. Matters worsened after a film Balakrishnan produced in 2010 flopped,” a police officer said.
Further describing the incident, police say that Balakrishnan decided to murder Sandhya as he suspected her of infidelity.
“Sandhya had gone home to Thoothukudi but had returned to their rented house in Gandhi Street, Jafferkhanpet, for Pongal. After a heated argument, Balakrishnan murdered her, severed her body parts and left them in various places to throw the police off the crime trail," the police officer said.
Reports suggest that the police found similar gunny bags in his residence in Jafferkhanpet. The police are reportedly also in possession of CCTV footage in connection with the case.
They are further investigating Balakrishnan, who has been arrested, to locate other parts of Sandhya's dismembered body.
Speaking to presspersons in Thoothukudi, Balakrishnan's brother Srinivasan said that his brother is being wrongly convicted. "Sandhya filed for divorce long back and left. She even complained at the local police station and left her children. I am raising their 17-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy," he said, adding that Balakrishnan was in Thoothukudi until 10 days ago and had only recently gone back to Chennai.
Sandhya's limbs were sent to Rajiv Gandhi government hospital for a medical examination and a team of three doctors conducted an autopsy. Primary reports confirmed that a machete was used by the murderer to cut her body parts. Time of the murder was also recorded as 10 pm on January 20.
