Tiruvallur double murder: 3 arrested, hunt on for others

They were identified as M Raja (24), R Vignesh (22) and V Arunkumar (23) of different villages in Kancheepuram district. A police officer said that the accused belong to the gang led by late gangster Sridhar Dhanapal’s car driver Dinesh and Thyagu, while the deceased, B Jeeva and R Gopi of Kancheepuram, were part of Sridhar’s cousin Thanikachalam’s gang. A few more suspects were also detained for interrogation, said the police.

The murder took place on Saturday near Pannur bus stop in Mappedu police’s jurisdiction when the duo was on their way to Thakkolam. The attackers who were hiding nearby hurled country bombs at them. When the duo lost balance and fell on the road, the gang surrounded and hacked them to death. Police said Gopi died of burns, while Jeeva who rode the bike succumbed to injuries after the attack.

Based on a complaint, the Mappedu police registered cases under various Sections (147,148, 341, 302) of IPC and Sections 3 and 5 of the Explosive Substances Act. Special teams were formed to nab the suspects.

Soon after the death of Sridhar Dhanapalan’s in Cambodia in 2017, Thanikachalam’s gang hurled bombs at vehicles of Dinesh and men, but Dinesh survived the attack. Later, Thanikachalam’s aide and advocate Sivakumar was brutally attacked in September 2018.

One of the suspects in the case, Satheeshkumar, was hacked to death in a moving bus in Cheyyar in September.

As revenge, Dinesh’s men hacked Thanikachalam’s cashier and Sridhar’s kin Karunakaran to death at his office in Kancheepuram in October. Dinesh was detained in Vellore, but Thanikachalam remains at large.