COIMBATORE: A 38-year-old woman, who strangled her husband to death and enacted a suicide drama was arrested by police in Coimbatore on Friday. Police said Bakkiyam (38) informed relatives that her husband Shanmuganathan (42), a daily wager from Karunanidhi Nagar in Sowripalayam, killed himself. But Shanmuganathan’s brother Kesavan and sister Mahalakshmi reported to the police as they found injury marks on the neck of the deceased.

Peelamedu police sent the body for a post-mortem at Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) after the found the death to be suspicious. The post-mortem report revealed that Shanmuganathan was murdered by strangulation.

Bakkiyam confessed to having killed her husband by strangulating him with a saree while he was asleep at night. She claimed that Shanmuganathan came home drunk and beat her and her children every day, police said. Unable to bear his torture, Bakkiyam strangled him with a saree, police said.