Thoothukudi (Tamil Nadu), Oct 24 (PTI) A 23-year-old man was arrested for allegedly hacking a woman to death, critically injuring her husband and a 12-year-old male relative, and abducting two minor girls after barging into a house near Sathankulam, police said on Saturday.
Police said the family, comprising the couple, their two teenage daughters and the boy, was asleep when an armed man entered the house around midnight on Thursday and attacked the woman, her husband and the boy with a sickle. The woman died on the spot, while the boy lost some of his fingers.
The attacker then took the two girls away on his motorcycle, police said.
Alerted by the family’s screams, neighbours rushed to the house and took the critically injured husband and the boy to the Nellai government hospital, where they were undergoing intensive treatment.
Police identified the suspect as Gnanaprakash (23) of Anandapuram. A team raided his house and rescued the two girls, who were held there. Gnanaprakash, who was hiding in a nearby forest area, was surrounded and arrested.
Preliminary investigation showed that he had allegedly befriended the elder girl while she was still in school and gifted her an expensive mobile phone, police said. Her parents became suspicious after noticing the two talking for long periods, reprimanded her, confiscated the phone and forbade further contact. Police are probing whether the attack was linked to this, they said. PTI SNR SSK
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