Tension prevailed in a village near Authoor in Thoothukudi district after a youth was beheaded by a gang from a neighbouring village on Friday night.
Ten persons were picked up in connection with the murder.
Police said P. Sathyamurthy, 22, of Thalaivanvadali left home around 6 p.m. and did not return. His family members started searching for him and found his headless body beneath a culvert near the village late in the night.
Arumuganeri police rushed to the spot, but were prevented by locals from sending the body to hospital for post-mortem. The villagers demanded that the head be retrieved and the assailants arrested first.
After prolonged talks held by Superintendent of Police Arun Balagopalan, they allowed the police to send the body to Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital for post-mortem.
As the police continued their search on Saturday, the head was recovered from a spot about 400 metres away from where the trunk lay with multiple cut injuries.
During investigation, police found that a group of people from neighbouring Keezha Keeranur village opposed the burial of the body of a person from Thalaivanvadali about seven months ago. As Sathyamurthy played a lead role in ensuring the burial of the body, it triggered enmity between him and villagers of Keezha Keeranur.
It worsened a week ago, when unidentified persons stole tender coconuts from a grove close to Keezha Keeranur. The villagers accused the youth of Thalaivanvadali of theft and a minor scuffle broke between the two groups. Against this backdrop, Sathyamurthy was brutally murdered on Friday night.
Meanwhile, a group of people from Thalaivanvadali ransacked 30 houses in Keezha Keeranur, forcing the police to deploy around 600 personnel in both hamlets. Rajesh, Palanisamy, Kutti alias Muniyasamy, Stephen Raj, Sridhar and Vinodh, all from Keezha Keeranur, and four from other areas were detained in connection with the murder.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tirunelveli Range, Praveen Kumar Abinapu and SP Arun Balagopalan visited the villages on Saturday.
, who had cases booked against him. They included a case registered under the SC/ST Act, which was dropped later
