CHENNAI: A 45-year-old sand contractor was arrested after police fished out his wife’s severed body from a public well in Manapakkam on Friday. Police said they arrested Sethuraman (45) of Kizhaku Street, Mettu Colony, Manapakkam after tracing him to Ashok Nagar. He allegedly murdered his flower vendor wife Jaya (36), a native of Cuddalore, and cut her body into pieces before disposing it off in a public well. The man had suspected his wife’s fidelity and had killed her when their daughters – Lokeshwari (14) and Ilakkiya (12) — had gone to school 10 days back, police said. Earlier on Friday morning, corporation employees fished out three polythene bags out of the well in Mettu Colony after residents complained of foul smell. “We all thought it was waste food dumped in polythene bags. This stench had been there for the past one week,” said a woman living in a house near the well.Police said they recovered three polythene bags that contained the decomposed body of Jaya cut into six pieces. But, they could not find Jaya’s head and the murder weapons and the well was being drained out. Police sources said they had identified the body as people living nearby the well had told police that Sethuraman had poured kerosene and phenyl in the well for a few days telling neighbours that he had dropped waste food. “We last saw her walking out of her house before Deepavali with a bag. They (family) would never speak to us. They came a few years back from Cuddalore and built a house here,” said one of Jaya’s neighbour.Police sources said Sethuraman confessed to murdering his wife as he suspected her fidelity. The sand contractor told cops that he met her when she was a commercial sex worker and had an inter-caste marriage. “On October 24, he came home a bit early when he saw a man running out his house. He then questioned his wife and attacked her. After she fell unconscious, he severed her body and packed it in polythene bags and dropped it in the well in the next street later in the night,” said a police official, adding that he had informed his kids that their mother had gone to her native Cuddalore.Sethuraman, who went absconding on Friday morning after police fished out the body, was traced to Ashok Nagar, police said. “He had switched off his phone and sent his daughters to school. But we have traced the signal of his mobile phone where he last used it,” said a cop.
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