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CHENNAI: A man stabbed his gay partner to death before ending his life by hanging at the shop where they worked on Ritchie Street , off Anna Salai , on Sunday night, police said.

The bodies of Prabhu , 28, with stab injuries around the neck, mouth and ears, and Saravanan , 30, suspended from the ceiling fan, were found around Monday noon when the shop opened for business. Police arrived and sent them to the government general hospital for postmortem. A case of murder and suicide was registered.

Prabhu, a resident of Narasingapuram, and Saravanan, of Chinthadripet , employed at a shop in the city’s hub for electronic goods, had been in a gay relationship despite stiff opposition from their families, said Egmore assistant commissioner of police Subramani , based on inquiries conducted with their friends and relatives.

This Sunday night, the assistant commissioner said, Prabhu was at the shop when Saravanan arrived.

Relationship strained after mom warned man

He asked him to come out for a talk, the officer said, quoting the owner of a neighbouring shop. A heated argument may have broken out as the neighbour heard voices being raised, he said. The neighbour, however, thought little about it as he had seen the two young men on several occasions and heard them arguing fiercely before patching up. The murder and suicide may have occurred a short while after the neighbour and left for the day, Subramani said. The next day, around noon, a woman employee came to open the shop and found the bodies, one splattered with blood and the other hanging from the fan.

Investigations found that the key of the shop had gone missing two years ago and the owner had a duplicate made. “Prabhu is believed to have stolen the original key. He probably used it to open the shop every Sunday night after it closed for business, and the two friends were known to have spent time there,” Subramani said. The relationship between the two became a little strained recently after Saravanan’s mother warned Prabhu against meeting her son, saying people in the neighbourhood were talking about their relationship, the officer said. An upset Prabhu decided to stay away from Saravanan who asked some of his friends to try and patch up, but in vain.

