CHENNAI: A 48-year-old man was arrested on murder charges after he assaulted his mother-in-law to death after a family dispute at their house in Madhavaram on Saturday.

The accused was identified as A Pushparaj. He lived with his wife, P Jhansi and three children at a rented house in Kannan Nagar, first street, Madhavaram.

Jhansi is working as a nurse at a government hospital in the city, while Pushparaj is unemployed, police investigations revealed. Pushparaj's unemployment led to a lot of quarrel between the couple and the victim, S Vasanthi (58) who stayed with the family and used to chide Pushparaj often in support of her daughter, police said.

Further, Pushparaj was also addicted to alcohol, which caused further tensions in the household. On Saturday evening, when Jhansi was at work, Vasanthi picked up an argument with Pushparaj for not supporting the family by going to work.

The argument escalated and Pushparaj stormed out of the house. A few minutes later, he returned with a wooden log, assaulted Vasanthi with the log and fled the scene. When Jhansi returned to work, she found her mother lying unconscious with blood injuries, after which she alerted the neighbours and took her mother to a hospital, where she died later at night.

Based on a complaint by Vasanthi's son, Johnson, Madhavaram Police registered a case of murder and arrested the accused, Pushparaj, on Sunday. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.