Chennai, Jul 2 (PTI): An engineering graduate was arrested in connection with the sensational murder of a 24-year-old woman IT professional at a railway station here last week and allegedly attempted suicide when surrounded by the police.

Ram Kumar was apprehended yesterday in his native Tirunelveli district in south Tamil Nadu by police, which had been pulled by the Madras high court earlier over its handling of the case.

He allegedly attempted suicide when police went to arrest him. He is undergoing treatment at a government hospital, police said.

Kumar was staying near victim Swathi's residence in Choolaimedu area here and had stalked her for months before allegedly murdering her using a sickle at the Nungambakkam railway station on June 24, they said.

Police late last night announced the arrest of the murder suspect, a native of Shencottah in Tirunelveli district.

The motive of the killing was being investigated, police said. Swathi, employed with software giant Infosys, was hacked to death around 6.30 AM on June 24 while waiting to board a train to her work place on the city outskirts.

Pulling up the police for leaving her body for nearly two hours on the platform, the Madras high court had warned of suo motu intervention if there was slackness in the probe.

The case was transferred from railway police to the city police which formed several special teams for the probe headed by an assistant commissioner.

With no CCTV camera in the railway station, police faced a tough job in obtaining clues and managed to get visuals of a man, suspected to be the assailant, from a CCTV installed at a house in the neighbourhood. They had also released the footage and also a sketch of the suspect.