Chennai: A 58-year-old financier turned RTI-Activist was hacked to death by a gang in broad daylight on Baker Street, Periamet, on Tuesday. The deceased, J. Parasmal, a resident of Kilpauk, was riding his two-wheeler to go to Narayana Moorthy Street in Sowcarpet when he was intercepted by a gang that came on bikes and in an autorickshaw around 10.30 am. The residents of the street soon found Parasmal lying in a pool of blood.
A resident of the street, requesting anonymity, said that there was a loud cry for help from a man near a cowshed on the street. “A group of men hacked him with sickles and fled in their vehicles while none of the residents in the street came out to bail out the victim. We were scared and waited for the gang to vacate the spot before we rushed to try and help him. We alerted the cops, and moved him to a private hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival”, he said.
“We have sourced CCTV footage from the residential area and the same was used to identify the vehicles and the assailants involved in the incident”, said a senior police official privy to the investigation.
The official played down any claims that Parasmal was killed because he was an RTI activist. “He has only been using the RTI to settle scores with those with whom he had conflicts. He is primarily into consulting and financing automobiles.
He was also consulting on setting up business establishments and getting the licences required for a fee. There was not much common good in every RTI petition that he filed and many were personal,” the official added.
Parasmal, who owned a single-floor commercial building in Sowcarpet two years ago alleged that the Chennai Corporation officials had sealed his building post his RTI-expose of 5 illegal multi-storeyed buildings in Sowcarpet. He had also locked horns with another commercial complex, owned by a private charitable trust, on Kasi Chetty Lane, Sowcarpet.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the deceased pursuing RTI as a means to settle scores with rivals may have been the reason behind the murder.
