A village panchayat president was killed and his brother seriously injured in a country-bomb attack near Tambaram on Thursday.
K. Shankar (48), panchayat president of Sethupattu village that comes under the Kundrathur panchayat union, was travelling with his younger brother K. Vasu (42) in a hired car on Tambaram-Manimangalam-Sriperumbudur Road when the incident took place.
Four unidentified men on two motorcycles intercepted the car as it approached a bend in the road about seven kilometres from Tambaram, in Manimangalam.
According to police officers of Sriperumbudur sub-division, Kancheepuram district, the gang hurled four country-made bombs into the car.
Shankar, Vasu and the car driver — whose identity could not be established — tried to abandon the car and flee. But the men attacked them with knives. The driver was spared.
The police are yet to figure out the escape route used by the assailants as they abandoned their motorcycles at the crime scene.
While Shankar bled to death on the spot, Vasu was taken to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital where he is undergoing treatment for critical injuries.
The car was badly damaged in the impact of the country-bomb explosion and had to be towed away from the spot.
A licensed pistol, in the possession of the brothers, was recovered by the police. The nature of the attack stunned the brothers and they were unable to use the pistol.
On November 29, 2012, Vasu and four others were returning to Sethupattu from Kancheepuram, in an SUV owned by Shankar, when a gang hurled country bombs at them. The car driver was killed on the spot and 3 others, including an official of the mines department of Kancheepuram district, were injured in the attack.
The police suspect the involvement of the panchayat president’s cousin in the attacks. Long-time personal enmity may have led to the murder attempts, the police said.
