Chennai: A 30-year-old man, who had been booked twice under the Goondas Act, was brutally murdered by a four-member gang in MM Colony in Aminjikarai, during the small hours on Monday. The deceased, who made amends to his criminal life, was last earning a living as a police informer, and the murder spot was less than a 100 feet from Aminjikarai police station.
Identified as Raj aka Deepak Raj had several cases including attempts to murder against him pending in different police stations. At around 2 am, the gang with their faces masked climbed atop a public toilet, in III Avenue in Anna Nagar Main Road, where Raj had been living since last week. The gang, toting knives and machetes, shooed away those sleeping on the pavement.
Subsequently, the gang hacked Raj to death and fled the scene. Raj, who was detained under Goondas act in 2013 and 2014, was enlarged after his detention orders were set aside. City police reformed Raj and rehabilitated him.
Raj had walked out of two women, one at Chembarambakkam with three kids and another at Choolaimedu. He was living with his mother Kala in Perumal Koil street in Vanagaram. Of late, he stopped going there as well.
He kept visiting his elder brother Murugan aka Chetper Murugan, who is living in MM Colony in Aminjikarai. Raj would eat at Murugan’s place and would sleep over the abandoned public toilet. A two-wheeler mechanic had clashed with Raj after he reportedly teased the former’s wife. The mechanic’s role is also being questioned. “He was completely reformed, and was always around cops helping them crack narcotic cases. We think he could have become a casualty because of his interference in the local drug market,” Raj’s mother Kala told DC.
