At 2.45 a.m. on September 16, 2023, a small hut on a vacant plot went up in flames at Gomathi Amman Nagar in a nondescript village called Allanur, near Melmaruvathur, 140 kilometres away from Chennai. The plot was newly developed and sat in the midst of a farmland. Hence, there was no one around to notice that the hut had caught fire.
It was only at dawn the next day that the police from Orathy in Chengalpattu district received information about a smouldering hut. When they reached the spot, they could only recover the charred remains of a man, who was likely over 38 years, from the destroyed hut.
