DMK panchayat prez held on murder charges after being at large

CHENNAI: A village panchayat president near Chennai was on Saturday arrested in connection with the murder of a milk vendor in Alamathi village near Red Hills a month ago, over a previous enmity between the deceased and the panchayat president's brother. The arrested person, K Tamizhvanan (39) belongs to the ruling DMK and has more than five cases, including attempt to murder cases against him, a senior police officer said.

The victim, R Murali (23), is a resident of Edappalayam. Murali's family rears cows and sells milk in the neighbourhood. On October 28, when Murali and his mother, Vatchala, were working in their cow shed, a gang of youth from Alamathi came with weapons and took Murali in a bike.

Alarmed, Murali's mother Vatchala summoned help from some of her relatives and when they went in search of Murali, a five member gang was beating up Murali with wooden logs and iron rods. Murali's family rescued him after pleading with the gang. He suffered grievous injuries and was moved to the Government hospital where he succumbed to the injuries.

Murali's relatives staged a road roko demanding arrest of those who murdered him after which Sholavaram police arrested four persons- Deepan, Naveen, Dileepan and Arumugam.

Police investigations revealed that the attack on Murali was made at the behest of Alamathi panchayat president Tamizhvanan. On October 14, Tamizhvanan and his brother Dileepan had come to Murali's home with weapons to attack him over Dileepan's altercation with Murali, according to the complaint by the deceased's mother. While locals intervened and sent the panchayat president and his brother away on October 14, they beat him to death on broad daylight two weeks later, a police officer said.

Though four persons were arrested for the murder, there was demand from the victim's family to arrest others involved in the murder too.

"The panchayat president had boasted among villagers that he could not be touched. He was on the run for over a month and was using more than 15 phone numbers," a police officer part of the special team said.

Sholavaram Police arrested Tamizhvanan on Saturday. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.