Chennai: Police on Thursday arrested six persons including two history-sheeters, in connection with the murder of a realtor hacked to death in front of his teenaged daughter in West Mambalam, two days ago.
On Tuesday morning, around 7 30 AM, the realtor, M Kandhan (43) was going on his two-wheeler to drop off his daughter at her college when the gang intercepted him and murdered him. His daughter K. Keerthana suffered injuries while attempting to save her father from the assault.
Preliminary investigation suggested previous enmity to be the reason behind the murder. While Kandhan now runs a real estate agency and a cable TV business in West Mambalam, he was involved in a murder case seven years ago, police said.
A team headed by the Saidapet assistant commissioner checked CCTV footages from the area. It showed two men on a bike as well attacking Kandhan apart from the main quartet, which came in an autorickshaw. A special team rounded up the six-member gang at the mofussil bus terminus near Koyambedu when they attempted to flee the city on Wednesday night, police said.
The arrested persons were identified as M Baskar (38) of Padappai, M Saravanan (28) of Walajahbad, S Suresh (32) and E Vinodh (32) of Urapakkam, S Nethaji (24) and P Manikandan (23) of Saidapet.
Investigations revealed that the arrested gang members and Kandhan were involved in the murder of one ‘Pallu’ Raj in Pallikaranai in 2010. Kandhan who was one of the masterminds in the murder had hired the men to commit the murder. After they were out on bail, Kandhan was supposed to pay them for their expenses. “However, Kandhan seemed to have stopped paying them in recent times earning the ire of the gang,” a police officer said.
Among the arrested, Baskar, Vinodh and Manikandan had been detained earlier under the Goondas Act.
