CHENNAI: When police stopped four men on two motorbikes at Maduravoyal for a vehicle check at 2.45am on Thursday, they found blood smears on the clothes of one man. The four, it turned out, were returning from an “assignment” given by a woman to kill her husband who stood in the way of her relationship with another man.

J Saravanan , 24, of Chennai, and K Giridharan, 25, R Perumal, 22, and V Senthil, 28, of Cheyyar in Kancheepuram, said they were hired by Cheyyar Durai alias Durairaj on Vidya’s instructions to kill her husband Raj Kumar. Police nabbed Vidya and Durai and are searching for her boyfriend Manikandan.

Sub-inspectors J Sebastian and R Ezhumalai, who stopped the four men, found the clothes of one of them, Saravanan, were bloodstained. He said he was a construction worker and had been injured in the stomach at work. However, as there was no wound, police took them to the police station for questioning. They confessed to the crime. Special sub-inspector C A Ganapathy and a police driver rushed to Raj Kumar’s house in Astalakshmi Nagar and found his body. Vidya first expressed ‘shock’ but later revealed the truth.

Eight years ago, Vidya married Raj Kumar, an electrician, when they worked at a garment export firm in Porur. Later, she met Manikandan, who works at a hospital in Bangalore, and started an affair with him. Raj Kumar came to know of this and tortured her, police said, based on her statement.

She told Manikandan about the torture and they met Durai. A plan was hatched and Perumal, Giridharan, Saravanan and Senthil came to Maduravoyal on Thursday evening. They planned to kill him after work but couldn’t find a suitable spot. Vidya then asked them to come to the house at night and said she would keep the main door open. In the house, Vidya held her husband’s legs while the men slit his throat.

Raj Kumar’s body was sent for postmortem. Police commissioner S George has rewarded the police personnel for apprehending the suspects.