Thiruvananthapuram: Goon hacked to death by rival

Thiruvananthapuram: In yet another incident of murder in the capital city, goonda leader S. P. Anil Kumar, 40, was hacked to death. This is the third murder in a gap of two weeks.

The city police has come under flak from several quarters as their recent drive, 'Operation Bolt'  has failed to rein in goonda attacks. Also, it happened at the heart of the city where the two goondas attacked each other in a busy stretch.

The goondas were allegedly in an inebriated condition when the incident happened at Barton Hill colony near Kunnuk-uzhy on Sunday night at 11 pm. The victim, Anil Kumar alias Ani was involved in many murder cases. He was driving an auto rickshaw since the last several months.

The Museum police informed that they are on the lookout for Ani's neighbour, Jeevan who has allegedly committed the murder.  Jeevan was detai-ned recently under Kerala Antisocial Prevention Act (KAPA). So far no arrests have been made.

The murder took place when the duo entered in to an altercation around 10 pm which led to Jeevan hacking him. Initially the neighbours did not alert the police. It was the friends of the duo who alerted the Museum Police. It was the police who took Ani to Medical College.

"There was a previous incident where Ani had hit Jeevan's sister which led to the altercation between the two. However the relatives of Ani's family informed that there were more people involved in the crime,” police said.

Only recently a youth, Ananthu Gireesh was kidnapped and killed at Karamana and in the second incident, another youth, Shyam belonging to Sreevaraham was stabbed to death. It was then that the city police initiated 'Operation Bolt' which saw several kilos of drugs and goonda leaders being arrested.