The Kodungaiyur police on Saturday arrested a 27-year-old doctor for allegedly causing the death of a young woman who was in a relationship with him by giving her an overdose of sleeping pills.

The deceased woman has been identified as B. Nithya, 26, a resident of Sathuma Nagar, Thiruvottriyur. Police sources said the woman claimed that she was working in an IT firm in Ambattur. After informing her parents that she had a heavy workload owing to which it was difficult to commute to her workplace from their house, she had rented a house in Ambattur. Later, she shifted to Kodungaiyur after she developed a relationship with one Balamurugan. The two were living together for the last eight months.

On Thursday evening, she was found dead under suspicious circumstances at the house. Police recovered her body and began a probe. Her parents who visited the house alleged that she was murdered and 25 sovereigns of jewellery were stolen. The body was sent to Government Stanley Hospital for a post-mortem. When the police found that her death had been caused by an overdose of sleeping pills, they initially suspected foul play by Balamurugan, with whom she was in a relationship.

Further investigation revealed that on Thursday afternoon she had sent Balamurugan away saying that her parents were visiting her. After scrutinising her call records, the police found that she was in contact with a few other male friends, and that she was not working in an IT firm, as she had claimed. The call records showed that she was contacted by a doctor last and thereafter she was found dead at the house. Police summoned the doctor for an enquiry.