Two notorious robbers were hacked to death by a group of samosa traders in Tondiarpet on Thursday.
According to the police, around 1 a.m. on Thursday, after a round of drinks, 32-year-old S. Sudha (also known as ‘Pulsar’ Sudha), a robber, along with his associate, K. Thangaraj (39), and other friends, went to Fourth Street in Tondiarpet to meet wholesale samosa trader S. Nagaraj.
Nagaraj and Sudha were old friends. Sudha used to live in the neighbourhood many years ago, before moving to the southern suburbs to avoid constant police monitoring.
On Thursday, after chatting for a bit, Sudha and Nagaraj got into an argument. Brandishing knives and sickles, Sudha threatened Nagaraj and other samosa traders and asked them to pay if they wished to conduct their business peacefully in the neighbourhood.
Enraged, the samosa traders, led by Nagaraj and his employee S. Mani (30), attacked Sudha and gang with clubs and iron ladles. Sudha suffered grievous injuries and collapsed on the spot.
The traders then went for the others. They chased Thangaraj for nearly a kilometre and beat him up.
While Sudha, a resident of Guduvancherry, was found dead on the spot, Thangaraj, a resident of Tiruvottiyur, was pronounced ‘brought dead’ when he was taken to Government Stanley Hospital. The bodies were kept at the hospital for post-mortem. A case of murder under section 302 was registered against Nagaraj and Mani by the R.K. Nagar police.
Sudha was a notorious highway robber and was involved in more than 50 criminal cases, mostly of highway robberies and chain-snatching in various places including Tiruvottiyur, Manali, Royapuram, Tondiarpet, Perambur and New Washermenpet.
He had also committed many robberies along the national highways including GST Road, Chennai–Bangalore highway and Chennai–Kolkata highway.
