A cab driver has been arrested in Chennai after setting his 60-year-old mother on fire because she ‘was unable to find him a bride,” police said.
The driver, D Amarnath Prasad, had tied his mother Sasikala to a chair and set her ablaze on Sunday morning, Arumbakkam police said.
Neighbours had heard a fight between the two at 5:30 am on Sunday, following which they alerted the police. Sasikala and her son were staying in a thatched hut on the terrace of an apartment block in Duraisamy colony.
“Sasikala was found strapped to a chair and covered in burns,” said a senior police officer, who added that she was taken to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital. She died on Sunday after suffering 70% burn wounds.
According to their neighbours, Prasad would often quarrel with his mother and was an alcoholic.
Sasikala’s eldest son had died a few years ago, while another was married and living in another part of Chennai.
Prasad was arrested on Monday.