3 murders in two days; Chennai shocked

CHENNAI: Three cases of murder were reported in separate incidents in and around the city since Saturday.

A 27-year-old worker of an eatery staff was assaulted by his friends while consuming liquor together on December 10 and succumbed to his injuries at the hospital on Saturday.

The deceased was identified as K Muthupandi of Tondiarpet, who works at an eatery in the same neighbourhood. Muthupandi was mocked while having booze with his friends. Irked over the incident, Muthupandi abused them back. Infuriated by this act, his friends assaulted him and fled the scene. A passerby, who found him lying with injuries, got him admitted to a hospital, where he died on Saturday, without responding to treatment.

RK Nagar Police registered a case of murder and arrested his friends N Shanmuganathan (28), K Haridas (25), Abdul Wahab (23) and V Mohanasundaram (21).

In another incident in Ambattur, a 44-year-old casual labourer was found dead on the road on Saturday morning with a broken glass in his neck. Police secured his body and moved it to a government hospital for postmortem. The deceased was identified as Vijayakumar.

Investigations revealed that Vijayakumar left home on Friday night after a fight with his wife. He took with him his wife’s gold chain to pledge it for buying liquor. Vijayakumar was last seen at a Tasmac outlet in Ambattur. Ambattur Police have registered a case of murder and have launched a search for the suspects.

In Gummidipoondi, around 50 kilometers from Chennai, a history-sheeter Nagaraj (32) was hacked to death by an unidentified gang on Saturday. Police said that Nagaraj has several murder cases against him. Police suspect it to be a case of revenge. Nagaraj had shifted base to Tiruchy after his enemies started targeting him and arrived at Gummidipoondi for a court hearing when he was murdered, police said.