‘Market’ Shankar, facing 3 murder cases, shot dead by police in Ayanavaram

The deceased Shankar alias ‘Market’ Shankar has three murder cases and five non-bailable warrants pending against him. He faces cases like attempt to murder, extortion and robberies, said a senior police officer.

This is the 11th encounter killing happening in Chennai police jurisdiction in the last 10 years. The incident happened around 6.45 am at an empty piece of land filled with debris near the Ayanavaram RTO.

“A judicial inquiry has been ordered into the incident,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (South) R Dhinakaran. Shankar allegedly attacked constable Mubarak with a sickle when the police team took him to the place where he had hidden the stash of ganja after nabbing him. The constable was not aware that Shankar had hidden a weapon along with the narcotics substance. “After he attacked the constable, Inspector of Police, Natarajan had no option but to shoot him,” added Dhinakaran. Total three rounds were fired. One hit the stomach and two on the chest of the deceased.

Dhinakaran claimed that Natarajan first shot Shankar at his stomach, but even after that Shankar attacked Mubarak. At that time inspector had to fire two rounds at Shankar’s chest.

Police claimed that it was a vehicle check in Ayanavaram that finally led to the encounter. During the vehicle check, Ayanavaram police nabbed one Dilip Kumar with 4 kg of ganja. After learning that his mother Rani had also been a peddler, a police team led by Inspector Natarajan arrested Rani and she reportedly disclosed details about Shankar.

The police said they nabbed Shankar from his house in Ayanavaram and after he confessed, he was taken to the place near Ayanavaram RTO where he had hidden bag loads of ganja he had smuggled from Andhra Pradesh.

Shankar’s body was sent to the Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital for postmortem.

Responding to a query whether the encounter in Chennai was an attempt to end the rowdy menace, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said that Tamil Nadu has always been in the forefront when it comes to maintaining law and order. “This government will curb rowdies by taking stringent action against them following the law. It should not be judged on basis of one or a few incidents,” he said in Coimbatore. The AIADMK government was under attack from opposition parties after a history-sheeter killed a cop recently in Thoothukudi by hurling a country-made bomb. On DMK leader MK Stalin’s criticism that ‘even cops have no protection under AIADMK rule’, the Chief Minister questioned the locus standi of DMK in raising issues on law and order.