Chennai: It was a case of cake and bullets for her. Little did the family members of Saraswathy, a second-year medical student, expect that her birthday would turn tragic on Wednesday. After presenting her a birthday cake, her Facebook-friend-turned-lover Karthikvel, a constable at TSP, Chennai, shot her dead with his service pistol at her house in Anniyur near Gingee. He then killed himself with the same gun, police said.
They said Saraswathy (22), a student of second-year MBBS at the ESIC medical college in KK Nagar, Chennai, had met TSP constable Karthikvel (30) on facebook about four years back and the two became lovers in course of time.
Karthik hailed from Kattupalayam in Anthiyur taluk of Erode district, and was serving at the TSP, mostly in VIP security, at Chennai when the two became close.
However, with Saraswathy getting serious in pursuing her medical education and also realising that Karthik was not so qualified, problems started cropping up in their relationship as she began to avoid him. She went home on short leave to celebrate her birthday on Wednesday and Karthik too followed her with birthday gifts in the hope of patching up and getting a marriage commitment from her.
According to Saraswathy's family, the birthday party had gone on well and they cut the cake brought by Karthik. And some of them even had retired to bed when they heard the two engage in heated argument. "Then we heard three gun shots and came out of the room to find them both dead", said Saraswathy's sister.
"He brought a cake for my daughter. We cut the cake and we had dinner. There was an argument and I told him let her finish her studies and we will talk. But he lost his temper", sobbed father Sekar.
