Couple found charred to death in hut at village near Chengam in Tiruvannamalai

A 55-year-old farmer and his wife were found charred to death in their hut, which was locked from the outside, on a farmland at Pakkiripalayam village near Chengam town in Tiruvannamalai on Friday.

The police identified the deceased as T. Sakthivel and his wife S. Amirtham, 40. Sakthivel was a former ward councillor in the Pakkiripalayam village panchayat and a DMK cadre. Initial inquiry revealed that Sakthivel was first married to Tamilisai, 50. The couple have three sons. After some misunderstandings, the couple separated, with Tamilisai living with her children in Bengaluru for the past five years. The police said Sakthivel met Amirtham when she was working at his leased paddy farm. Amirtham was also estranged from her husband Sivakumar, 45, who lived in the same village with his three children.

The police said after their marriage, Sakthivel and Amirtham lived in a hut on the farmland in the village. Past midnight on Friday, unidentified persons reportedly set the hut on fire after locking the door from the outside. The couple was charred to death.

Based on an alert from neighbours, the police reached the spot around 7 a.m. The bodies were sent to the Government Medical College Hospital in Tiruvannamalai town for a post-mortem. Tiruvannamalai Superintendent of Police M. Sudhakar formed special teams to nab the suspects. A probe is under way.