Idukki (Keralam) | A man allegedly hacked his wife and mother-in-law to death and seriously injured his father-in-law in an attack at their residence in Glenmary Estate in Peermade in this hill district, police said on Thursday.

Prince (40) was taken into custody soon after the incident on Wednesday night, they said.

The deceased were identified as Priyanka (35), Prince's wife, and her mother Nesamma (60). Priyanka's father, Isravel (65), who sustained serious injuries in the attack, was admitted to a government hospital in neighbouring Kottayam district.

According to the FIR, the accused, harbouring enmity towards his wife and her parents, attacked them with the intention of killing them at the front of their house in the estate the previous night.

Prince reached the house and got into an argument with Priyanka. He then attacked her and her mother with a weapon. Isravel was injured when he tried to intervene, they added.

Priyanka had returned to Kerala recently from the Gulf, and the couple had been involved in domestic disputes since her return.

A case has been registered under Sections 103(1) (murder) and 109(1) (attempt to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Procedures to formally record the arrest of the accused were under way, police added.