Being empathetic appears to have cost R Nandhini, a software engineer from Madurai, her life. Little did she or her family suspect that her once-school classmate would go to the extent of murdering her.

Her classmate Vetrimaran, a trans-man, made her believe that he would give her a surprise on her birthday eve on Saturday and convinced her to accompany him to a deserted place in Ponmar in Thalambur police limits.

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, said police.

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. He was however, nabbed on Sunday and later remanded in judicial custody.

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. On the way home, he took Nandhini to Ponmar where he blindfolded her, tied her limbs, inflicted cut injuries on her neck and wrists, doused petrol and torched her, and fled.

After completing her studies, Nandhini moved to Chennai and got employed in a software firm and was residing at her paternal uncle's home in Kannagi Nagar here.

While Vetrimaran, residing at Mappedu was in regular touch with her.

"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.

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