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CHENNAI: A woman glued the eyes of a 54-year-old man and murdered him by slitting his throat at a playground in Washermenpet on Monday night, allegedly after he threatened to make public their intimate photos, police said. She was arrested the next day and a court sent her to jail.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that the deceased man, Sekar of Thiruvottiyur, had sexually assaulted the 24-year-old woman, a friend of his daughter, more than four-and-a-half years ago and continued to exploit her. Recently, after coming to know that she had decided to get married, he began to threaten the woman and her family members. She then planned to kill him, a police officer said.

On Monday night, the police control room was alerted about a man found dead with his throat slit on Cross Road in Washermenpet. A team of the New Washermenpet police rushed to the spot and sent the body to Government Stanley Medical Collge and Hospital for postmortem. It was later identified as that of Sekar alias Amman Sekar, who was into the camphor business. After inquiries revealed that Sekar had last been seen with the woman in the same locality, police detained the woman and questioned her when she narrated her ordeal.

Her family members knew about her problem, but remained silent as Sekar provided them financial support, the officer said. The woman had been studying in the same college as Sekar’s daughter, though both completed different degrees, and frequently visited their home while in her teens. It was on one of her visits that Sekar sexually assaulted her and continued to do so, regularly buying her expensive gifts, the officer said, based on the woman’s statement.

The woman then decided to get married. Sekar became aware of this and was furious. “He began asking the woman and her parents to call off the marriage, saying he would post pictures of them together online,” said the officer. He also promised to send the pictures to her relatives.

Unable to put up with the torture, the woman told police, she decided to kill him. On Monday, she asked Sekar to come with her to Adyar where she would present him with a gift. After spending some time on Elliot’s beach, they returned to Washermenpet where they usually met. As they were speaking, she told Sekar to close his eyes as she would give him the gift. When he shut his eyes, she applied a strong glue to the eyes, pulled out a knife and stabbed him, the officer said. Leaving him for dead, she fled the spot before finally police managed to catch up with her.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

