In the death case of popular Tamil TV actor VJ Chitra, police have arrested her husband Hemnath in Chennai under abetment to suicide charges. Chitra was found dead in her hotel room last week. Based on the post mortem report, the police said that she died by suicide and initially suspected financial issues seem to be one of the reasons. 

Hemanth was arrested after several rounds of interrogation. Chitra’s mother had also accused Hemnath of harassing her daughter. and “beating” her to death. The two reportedly met through an arranged marriage set-up. 

According to reports, Hemanth had been angry with Chitra for her intimate scenes in a television serial since the last few days. “Hemanth did not like a scene she had enacted on TV. On the day she died, he had also pushed her,” Assistant Commissioner of Police Sudarshan told NDTV.

Chitra’s friends and colleagues, co-stars of her show Pandian Stores too have recorded their statements in the case. 

Chitra and Hemanth were staying at a hotel in Nazarethpettai, Chennai. Hemanth told the police that Chitra locked herself in the room right after returning from the shoot that night around 2:30 AM. When she didn’t respond for long, he apparently informed the hotel authorities who opened the room using a duplicate key to only find her dead.

Chitra, 28, was best known for playing the role of Mullai in the popular show Pandian Stores. The Tamil TV actor’s fans have expressed shock over her sudden demise and offered condolences. The actor had posted a picture of herself just a few hours before her death. She had also taken to her Instagram stories to repost on-set videos shared by anchor-friend Sharanya Turadi, from her last night’s shoot.