CHENNAI: A 25-year-old nurse suffocated her husband to death with the help of her boyfriend and two of his friends in Tiruttani in Tiruvallur district on Monday night and tried to pass it off as a case of suicide after hanging the body from the ceiling.Police identified the murdered man as A Yuvaraj, 29 of RK Pet in Tiruttani.

His wife Gayathri, her boyfriend Srinivasan, 30, and his friends Manikandan, 28, and Hemanathan, 22, were later arrested and sent to jail.

While Yuvaraj had been working in a car accessories manufacturing unit in Mannurpet, Gayathri was employed at a private hospital in Tiruttani.

The two, who were related, got married five years ago and had a child, police said.On Monday night, an officer quoting from the woman's statement said, Srinivasan, Manikandan and Hemanathan came to Gayathri's house before Yuvaraj arrived and hid themselves.

As soon as Yuvaraj entered, Srinivasan overpowered him and threw him on a bed.

Manikandan and Hemanathan held the man's legs tight, while Gayathri and Srinivasan suffocated him with a pillow taking turns to hold his hands.

The three men then tied a knot around the neck and hung the body from the ceiling.Later, Gayathri called Yuvaraj's father Arumugham and said her husband had hanged himself when she was sleeping.

Police arrived and sent the body for postmortem, but Arumugham lodged a complaint, alleging foul play in his son's death.The RK Pet police, who found injury marks on his legs and hands began questioning Gayathri who attempted suicide before confessing that she murdered her husband.She told investigators of her relationship with Srinivasan, a resident of Aakoor village.

She said the two had studied nursing together in a private college in Chennai and were in love for nearly seven years and remained in touch even after Gayathri married Yuvaraj.

Srinivasan joined the hospital where she worked and they continued seeing each other.

Recently Yuvaraj came to know about their relationship after getting access to her mobile phone.

He confronted them and asked them to end ties; that's when they decided to eliminate him, an officer said.