Chennai: A purported murder-for-gain orchestrated by a woman BPO employee to dispose of her husband fell through as her colleague who was involved in the murder was caught fleeing by a night patrol team, during the small hours of Wednesday.

At around 3 am, the Vadapalani night patrol team found Gopalakrishnan (35), a chartered accountant and resident of II Street, Bhaktavachalam Salai, Vadapalani, lying dead in a pool of blood and his wife, Bharathi (31), tied with ropes and in a sedated condition.

The cops picked up Naveenton Karthick Leon (25), a colleague of Bharathi, who while wearing a wig and face masked with a handkerchief was riding a two-wheeler.

As he attempted to flee on sighting the cops, he was nabbed after a short chase and was found carrying a bloodstained knife in his bag. He claimed that he had robbed a woman after attacking her husband.

As cops unravelled the relationship between Bharathi and the purported robber, Bharathi pretended to have regained consciousness at the Government Royapettah Hospital (GRH).

Unaware of her colleague confessing to the crime, the woman continued to play distraught over her husband’s death. The woman was taken into custody.

Preliminary investigations revealed that Bharathi was gearing up to celebrate her birthday on Thursday. “She had decided to kill her husband who was the only hindrance to her relationship with Leon, her workmate at her T. Nagar workplace. Gopalakrishnan, who came to know about her relationship, warned her to sever all ties with Leon.

As per their plan, she left the house door open. Leon, who entered the house at around 2 am when Gopalakrishan was fast asleep, stabbed him in the neck and saw him bleed to death. He then tied Bharathi down and was making his escape good when he was caught,” said an investigation officer.

She had left her 11-month-old child at her mother’s place in Tiruvannamalai earlier this week. Leon took away her 8-sovereign mangalsutra hoping to make the theory of murder-for-gain work while keeping their relationship under wraps.

The Guindy resident had also chose to wear a wig and his face masked so as to conceal his identity from the surveillance cameras along the route.