A jilted lover Vetrimaran (26) allegedly killed his partner after he chained her, cut her with a blade and burnt her alive in Thalambur — a suburb in Chennai — on Saturday.  

Cops said transman, Vetrimaran also underwent a sex change process to marry the 25-year-old software engineer R Nandhini.  Pandi Maheshwari, who had developed a friendship with Nandhini in the past eight months in the same software firm, had changed her name to Vetrimaran after the sex-change operation.

Chennai Police said Nandhini was made to believe that Vetrimaran would give her a surprise on her birthday eve on Saturday and even convinced her to accompany him to a deserted place in Ponmar in Thalambur police limits.

Cops said he then blindfolded her and chained her hands and feet as a 'surprise,' slashed her neck and wrists, emptied a can of petrol and torched her before fleeing from the spot.

Hearing her cries, a few passers-by alerted the police. However, before she was rushed in an ambulance to the Chromepet Government hospital for treatment, Nandhini gave out the mobile number of Vetrimaran, police said.

"Initially, he came to identify Nandhini and had accompanied her to the GH but later disappeared," a police officer said. 

Police investigation revealed that Pandi Maheswari, 26, studied with Nandhini at a school in Madurai. Nandhini had continued her friendship on humanitarian grounds even after Maheswari changed the name to Vetrimaran.

He was in regular touch with her. He got incensed when she started avoiding him. "He became over-possessive when he noticed her talking to other male friends. There was an argument between the two over this," said a police official.

On December 23, on Nandhini's birthday eve, Vetrimaran called her to say that he would not quarrel with her and asked her to meet him as he planned "a surprise" for her birthday.

After presenting her new clothes, he took her to an orphanage near Tambaram and made a donation.

After completing her studies, Nandhini moved to Chennai, got employed in a software firm and resided at her paternal uncle's home in Kannagi Nagar. "Had Nandhini told us there was a problem then we would have helped her. Being empathetic cost Nandhini her life," her father said.

Her elder sister said the family got a call from the police saying her sister had been set afire and that she was dead. On Sunday evening, the police handed over Nandhini's body to her family on her birthday.

An enraged Vetrimaran allegedly killed Nandhini after she decided to part ways with the former and engage with others. Cops took Vetrimaran in judicial custody and further probe is on. (with PTI inputs)