Chennai doctor kills woman for extortion with private photos
The doctor claimed to the investigators that the deceased had extorted several lakhs from him after their break-up, threatening that she would send his private photos to his family members.;
Dr Santosh Kumar
CHENNAI: A day after a 26-year-old woman was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her rented house in Kodungaiyur, investigators have arrested her former boyfriend, a 27-year-old doctor working at a private hospital in the city, on murder charges.
The doctor claimed to the investigators that the deceased had extorted several lakhs from him after their break-up, threatening that she would send his private photos to his family members.
The deceased woman, B Nithya, a Tiruchy native, was found dead by her current live-in partner, S Balamurugan, on Thursday night. Both were unemployed, but Nithya had told her parents that she was employed at an IT firm.
Nithya's parents had alleged that about 25 sovereigns of jewellery belonging to their daughter were missing too. While there were no external injuries on Nithya's body and the preliminary post-mortem results indicated the presence of toxins, the police initially began investigations into whether she had committed suicide.
However, the suspicion fell on the accused, Dr Santosh Kumar after CCTV footage showed Santosh visiting Nithya's house earlier in the day, and Nithya's call records also indicated that she was in contact with the doctor.
Santosh Kumar, a native of Asthampatti near Salem, lives at Saidapet and is working at a private hospital in Alandur, police said.
Santosh got acquainted with Nithya last year through social media. The woman falsely claimed to Santosh too that she works in an IT firm in Ambattur, and both of them got into a relationship over time and had lived together for a few months.
While Santosh called off the relationship, the woman allegedly began threatening him with his private pictures, demanded money and siphoned off over Rs 8 lakh in money and jewels.
Meanwhile, on June 5, Santosh visited Nithya after arranging a meeting, and the two of them got drunk. Dr Santosh allegedly mixed sedatives in her drink and then smothered her to death, after which he used Nithya's hands to take off jewellery from her jewellery box and left the house.
Santosh handed over the jewels to one of his friends, who was also picked up by the Kodungaiyur police, but was let off after investigations, after it was found that he had no role in the murder.
Santosh was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.