Coimbatore : A District court here Thursday awarded death sentence to a man for the brutal murder of a 54-year old woman, for gain, some six years ago in the city.

The prosecution case was that the man Yasser Arafat had killed the woman Saroja and chopped her body in pieces and packed it in two suit cases and kept in the service apartment flat in Raheja Towers in the heart of the city, where he was also staying, on February 13 2013.

There was a woman missing case lodged on February 13 and some of the neighbours complained of foul smell emanating from the flat.

Investigation led to the arrest of Yasser Arafat, a resident of Melapalayam in Tirunelveli district and working in Malayasia, from Vishakhapatnam, where he was staying after the crime.

The case was in the Fourth Additional District Court and the Judge K Poorana Jeya Anand awarded death sentence to the accused.