Gangster ‘Kurangu’ Senthil killed in an encounter near Tiruchi

A notorious gangster R. Senthil alias ‘Kurangu’ Senthil (27) was killed in an encounter with the police near Tiruverambur in the city’s outskirts in the early hours on Friday.

A close associate of gangster ‘Manalmedu’ Shanker who was killed in an encounter in Pudukottai district a couple of years ago, Senthil was allegedly involved in murder, attempt to murder and robbery cases registered against him in various places in the State.

A B.E. drop out, Senthil was one of the accused in the murder of DMK’s Tiruvarur district secretary Poondi Kalaiselvan at Koradachery in 2007. This is the fifth encounter death in the Central Zone in the last three years.

Senthil, who had been absconding for more than a year, and one ‘Kora’ Natarajan had planned to eliminate the present DMK district secretary of Tiruvarur Poondi Kalaivanan, the brother of Kalaiselvan, and Ammapettai union DMK secretary Thiaga Suresh, the Inspector General of Police, Enforcement and IG (in-charge) of Central Zone J.K. Tripathy told the media here on Friday.

The Thanjavur police received inputs about the plan to eliminate Kalaivanan and Thiaga Suresh, an accused involved in a double murder case registered in Nachiarkoil police station in Thanjavur district in 2008, upon interrogating one Viji alias Swaminathan in connection with a case on October 1, he said.

Based on the information, the Inspector of Ammapettai police station S. Karthikeyan and Head Constable Sridharan went in search of Senthil and ‘Kora’ Natarajan. The police personnel on spotting Senthil riding a motorcycle near Tiruverambur bridge in the early hours tried to intercept him.

The IG said Senthil took the Vengur road with the police personnel chasing the former in a jeep and finally intercepted him. Senthil lobbed a country bomb at the police party as they tried to nab him. The country pistol and two cartridges fell from his possession as Senthil lobbed another country bomb at the police personnel, he said.

Subsequently, Senthil attacked Inspector Karthikeyan on his left shoulder with an aruval when the latter tried to apprehend him. He also tried to attack the Head Constable when the Inspector, after sounding a warning, opened two rounds of fire from his service pistol in self defence at Senthil who fell down.

The Inspector and the Constable took Senthil to the Annal Gandhi Memorial Government Hospital in the city where he succumbed, the IG said. The Tiruverambur police has registered a case under Explosives Act on a complaint from Inspector Karthikeyan.