A 44-year-old second-rung leader of DMK in north Chennai was hacked to death near the Sembium police station on Paper Mills Road in Perambur on Monday night.
Eight persons were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the murder.
The police said the suspects might have murdered ‘Idi Murasu’ S. Elangovan as they were allegedly harassed by the errant sons of Elangovan’s deceased elder brother, Sekar.
The police said the victim was a real estate agent and also owned a sand quarry business. On Monday night, around 10.30 p.m., he was coming out of an asthma clinic located near the police station when an eight-member gang on bikes attacked Elangovan with sickles and iron rods.
A friend of Elangovan’s who was riding pillion escaped and ran to the police station for help. However, before a team of policemen could reach the spot, Elangovan, who sustained injuries on his head, legs and hands, collapsed.
He was immediately rushed to Apollo Hospitals where doctors declared him ‘brought dead. His body was later shifted to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital for post-mortem.
A case of murder under section 302 of IPC was registered by the Sembium police and a special police team formed to nab the culprits.
The eight persons arrested on Tuesday were named as Nithyadaran, ‘Delhi’ Ganesh, Murugan, Premkumar, Rajkumar, Santhosh Kumar, Rajamani and Arivazhagan. All the suspects, aged between 22 and 23, are residents of B.V. Nagar in Vyasarpadi where the victim had also resided for many years, and had known each other since childhood.
Police sources said Elangovan had been a DMK secretary for ward no. 45 for many years and was involved in kangaroo courts settling local disputes. He was also involved in sand mining for decades and in recent times, had invested in real estate business in developing areas like Madhavaram, Retteri, Manali and Sembium.
“Elangovan’s influence in the neighbourhood was on the rise and that created animosity among his rivals within the party and also in his varied fields of business. We are probing all angles to determine the motive for the murder,” said a police officer.
