Upset over petty dispute, auto driver kills woman fruit vendor on busy Tiruvottiyur street
The woman, Gauri, and her husband, Mari (55), were running a fruit and vegetable stall on the bustling Sannathi Street in Tiruvottiyur.
The attacker V Sekar
CHENNAI: A petty squabble, a minor scuffle, and an alleged public humiliation ended in the brutal murder of a 50-year-old woman in Chennai on Tuesday night. The murderer, an auto-rickshaw driver, was arrested by the police, while the incident became ammunition for the opposition parties to blame the ruling DMK for the alleged deterioration of law and order scenario in Tamil Nadu.
The woman, Gauri, and her husband, Mari (55), were running a fruit and vegetable stall on the bustling Sannathi Street in Tiruvottiyur. On Tuesday, a man approached their stall, pulled out a knife, and started attacking both of them.
Gauri sustained grievous injuries and died on the spot, while Mari suffered deep cuts on his head and arms. The public who witnessed the shocking attack nabbed the attacker and immediately alerted the Tiruvottiyur police.
The police arrested the man, rushed Mari to a nearby hospital, and sent Gauri’s body to Government Stanley Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination.
Initial investigations revealed that the murder was over a month-old dispute between Gauri and the attacker, V Sekar (52), an auto-rickshaw driver. According to the police, she allegedly urinated on the pavement where Sekar used to sleep, which triggered an argument between them. In the heat of the quarrel, she allegedly slapped him with her footwear, which he took as a personal insult.
When he attacked her with a knife, Mari intervened to protect her, only to suffer injuries.
The police have arrested Sekar and are investigating if there are any other motives behind the attack.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, PMK founder S Ramadoss alleged that the law and order machinery becomes weak when the DMK comes to power, citing the murder and another incident in Tirumangalam in Madurai where a DMK councillor allegedly looted a shop.
“Preventing such incidents should be the police's primary responsibility. However, the police seem to focus more on covering up the crimes committed by the functionaries of the DMK and its alliance parties than providing safety to the public,” he alleged in a statement.