TIRUNELVELI: Seventy-year-old Saradha and her 50-year-old son Madhu reached Samathanapuram two days ago to collect rents from families residing in their second house. They were staying in one of the rooms whenever they made the trip for the rent collection. On Thursday, the Palayamkottai police was informed by several concerned neighbours that a stench was wafting out of the closed room.
The sight inside that room singed the officers’ mind. Lying on the floor was the decomposed body of the septuagenarian; crouching nearby was her son, who seemed unsure of his surroundings. Though the cause of death will only be established after the postmortem examination report comes, sources said, adding that the body bore an injury mark on its head. The hand of the man, a railway employee, also bore an injury mark. Madhu, sources added, suffers from a mental disorder and his long absence from work had recently attracted a departmental inquiry. The relationship between the mother and the son was strained.
As of now, the police is tight-lipped about what they think might have happened; they have, nevertheless registered a case. “We are conducting an inquiry with the man and the neighbours to find out whether Saradha was killed or she died after an accident. We believe Madhu had been sitting beside his mother’s corpse for the past two days as he was unable to think the next course of action,” an officer said. (*Names changed)