DMK man hacked to death in public view

SALEM: A gang hacked a DMK man to death in full public view in Veeranam in the outskirts of Salem city on Thursday. According to Veeranam police, the murderers attacked P Murugan, 45, of Pallipatty near Veeranam to avenge a bus conductor's murder that took place three months ago.
Few days ago, he joined the DMK party as a member from AIADMK. His wife, Rani runs a fancy store in the same area and Murugan assists her in the business.
On Thursday morning around 8am, Murugan opened the store when a few unidentified men suddenly entered the store and hacked him to death with a sickle in public view.
At that time, Murugan's brother Selvam arrived the spot with to visit him. On seeing Selvam, the gang chased after him with their sickle to kill him. But he managed to escape.
People who witnessed this immediately alerted the Veeranam police following which the police arrived at the spot and began investigations. Preliminary investigations revealed that Murugan's family had been feuding with a few people in his village.
A government bus conductor Sambu alias Shanmugam, 46, of Pallipatti village was hacked to death in full public view in the bus while he was working on April 26.
"One of Shanmugam's friends had been involved in a money lending dispute with Murugan, who went hiding after Shanmugam's murder," said a top official from the Salem city police.
Shanmugam had many supportive friends who took his side over Murugan's which did not go down well with him. "Despising his activities, Murugan plotted to murder Shanmugam and hired an eight member gang to murder him," he added.
Police suspect that Shanmugam's relatives might have murdered Murugan to avenge his death. "The gang had also tried to hack Murugan's brother Selvam. In view of this, we suspect that Shanmugam's relatives might be involved in the murder," Veeranam police said.
Meanwhile, relatives of the deceased did not permit to Veeranam police to send his body to Salem government hospital for postmortem. They staged a road-roko on Salem-Veeranam state highways. Deputy commissioner of Salem city police S Prabhakaran and other officials rushed to the spot to pacify the crowd.
They assured that stern action against would be taken against the accused. Police were then allowed to send the body for postmortem. A case had been registered and further investigations are underway.