Spurned man hacks engineering student, tries to kill self in TN

A 23-year-old engineer student was allegedly hacked to death in Coimbatore by a spurned man who later tried to commit suicide by consuming poison, police said on Thursday.

The accused, identified as Zahir, hails from Kerala and was working in a mill at Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu.

According to police, the victim, S Dhanya, was alone when the accused allegedly entered her house and hacked her to death on Wednesday. The incident took place around 8 pm. Dhanya’s body was found later by her mother Sharada.

Zahir is currently in an ICU ward in Palakkad. “We have registered a case of murder against him,” a police official said. “We haven’t arrested him yet”.

Dhanya was engaged and had recently joined a private engineering firm. The police said that Zahir, 27, was Dhanya’s family friend and had known her for over a year.

Last month, a 20-year-old engineering student was beaten to death inside a college classroom by a senior in Karur district, around 400 km from Chennai. Sonali knew the alleged killer, Udhaya Kumar, but had stopped speaking to him after he was suspended.

A day later, N Francina, a 24-year-old teacher, was beaten to death inside a church in Tuticorin. Her assailant was found hanging at his home a few hours later.

In July, a 24-year-old Infosys employee, Swathi, was hacked to death at a busy railway station in Chennai, prompting outrage across the country. Her attacker, Ramkumar, is awaiting sentence. SC COMMUTES DEATH SENTENCE TO RAPIST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Supreme Court on Thursday commuted the death sentence of Govindachamy, a convict in the brutal rape and murder case of 23-year-old Soumya, to sevenyear jail term after dropping the murder charge against him.

“The sentence of death for commission of offence under Section 302 IPC (Punishment for murder) is set aside and instead the accused is sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years,” a bench said.

The prosecution had said the incident took place when Soumya, an employee of a Kochi shopping mall, was travelling in a ladies coach on the Ernakulam-Shoranur passenger train on February 1, 2011 and was attacked and pushed off from the train by Govindachamy, pointing out that Govindachamy had already been convicted in eight cases in his native state.