‘MURDER SUSPECT NOT VICTIM’S BOYFRIEND’
Uncle says she must have made up story to avoid man
THE family of D. Tharani, 35, who was murdered by a man claiming to be her boyfriend, has denied that she was in any sort of relationship with the suspect.
Her uncle, who wanted to be known only as Manimaran, said his niece had been trying to avoid the suspect as he might have been stalking her at their workplace.
Manimaran said Tharani must have made up a story about her getting married to someone to ward off the suspect’s advances.
“Marriage was the last thing on her mind.
“In fact, the word marriage itself was enough to put her off.”
Manimaran, from Ara Damansara, said the family had no idea of the man’s existence and none of them had met him prior to yesterday.
“If Tharani and the man were in a relationship, she would have shared the news with her sisters.
“I even asked my nephew, who she shares everything with, but he too said he doesn’t know anything about her relationship with this man.
“As far as we know, the suspect was just a colleague from her new workplace,” he said outside the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre mortuary yesterday.
It was reported that Tharani was killed by a man, who claimed to be her boyfriend, at the parking lot of a hypermarket in Kota Damansara.
The suspect, who worked in the same place as the victim since November, had earlier taken her to the hypermarket for lunch and bought household items, including a vegetable knife.
As they were returning to the suspect’s car, she reportedly told him that she intended to marry another man.
This caused the man to stab her with the knife they just bought.
He then drove his car with the deceased to the Damansara police station and turned himself in.
Tharani was the youngest of three girls in her family.
“We are shocked over her death,” Manimaran said.
He said Tharani’s sisters had moved out after getting married and the deceased was staying with her parents in Bandar Baru Selayang.
Asked if her demeanour had changed of late, he said Tharani had become more reserved and talked less at home in the last couple of months.
“She would come home from work, take a shower and enter her room. Her parents didn’t suspect anything wrong because they thought she was too tired after work,” Manimaran said.
Asked if her parents had arranged Tharani to marry someone, Manimaran said “no”.
District police chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Zaini Che Din said the 37-year-old suspect had been remanded for seven days.
Zaini said the suspect claimed that he was in a relationship with the victim since November.
Police are expected to review the hypermarket’s closed-circuit television recordings as part of their investigation into the case.