Fourteen persons held in two murders across Chennai

CHENNAI: A day after two persons were murdered in different parts of the city, in Thuraipakkam and Kodungaiyur, Chennai Police have arrested 14 persons in connection with the murders.

In Kodungaiyur, R Ragupathy (30) alias Karuppa of Muthamizh Nagar was walking near his home when a gang who came in two autorickshaws hacked him to death on Thursday morning. Ragupathy is a history-sheeter and has several cases against him, police said. After investigations, Kodungaiyur Police zeroed in on the suspects and arrested M Manikandan (26), K Suresh (28), P Manikandan (30), K Balaji (33), G Seeman Raj (40) and D Rafiq (26).

Police investigations revealed that on Wednesday night, the deceased had attacked one of the accused, M Manikandan, while they were drinking.

Infuriated over this, Manikandan ganged up and hacked Ragupathy to death, police said. All the accused were produced before a magistrate and remanded in custody.

In Thuraipakkam, police were alerted about a dead body in an abandoned plot in Mettukuppam on Thursday morning, who was later identified as B Murugan (23) of Neelankarai.

Investigations revealed that a man came to Murugan's house on Wednesday and the two of them left in an autorickshaw. After investigations, police found out that Murugan was taken from his home by Kicha, who has previous enmity with the deceased. Kicha and his friends got drunk with Murugan and in an inebriated attacked him with weapons, killing him.

While Kicha is yet to be apprehended, Thuraipakkam Police have arrested eight of his friends- R Vignesh (28), M Abinesh (24), J Venkatesan (32), M Appu (29), B Xavier (26), M Sivaprakash (27), K Karan (19), M Satish (38). All of them were produced before a magistrate and remanded in custody.