A court here has awarded life imprisonment to a woman and her father and brother for poisoning to death a teacher.
According to Additional Public Prosecutor S. Velusamy, D. Santhosh, 36, a teacher from Ramachandrapattinam near Paavoorchathram in the district had extra-marital affair with M. Ponselvi, 44, of Paavoorchathram.
When Ponselvi developed an affair with a few more men from the same area, Santhosh threatened her that he would inform her husband working abroad if she did not snap her extra-marital affair with others.
Ponselvi, who was terrified by the threat, sought the help of her father K. Thangapandi, 70, of nearby Vaikkaalipatti and her brother T. Murugan, 34, to murder Santhosh. She invited Santhosh to her house for a dinner. When he came, he was served poisoned dinner. He died on the spot.
As the trio had already dug a pit within the compound wall of her house, the body was buried.
When the Paavoorchathram police, on getting complaint from the wife of Santhosh, registered a case and checked the mobile phone calls of Santhosh and Ponselvi, the investigators found that the deceased had gone to the house of the woman on her invitation and was poisoned to death.
Based on the information given by Ponselvi, the police also arrested Thangapandi and Murugan and exhumed the body of Santhosh from the backyard of Ponselvi’s house for on-the-spot post-mortem that revealed poisoning.
Additional District and Sessions Judge S. Manoj Kumar awarded life imprisonment to Ponselvi, Thangapandi and Murugan on Wednesday and imposed a fine of ₹10,000 each.
The Judge also awarded seven years imprisonment for destroying the evidence. However, the sentence would run concurrently.
Published – November 12, 2025 06:28 pm IST
