In what is seen as an extension of political murders, a former Dalit panchayat president and MDMK functionary in Guduvanchery was hacked to death in front of his daughter, at Perumattunallur in Kancheepuram district on Wednesday.
Police said the deceased, M Sampath (45), who was ferrying his daughter Keerthana (13), a class VIII student, to her tuition class on his bike, was intercepted by a five-member gang posing as streetlight repairers, about 500 metres away from his residence.
When the gang brandished machetes and sickles, Sampath asked his daughter to flee and he too began running. The gang, after a short chase, hacked him to death after pushing the girl aside, and fled in a waiting car.
Police, who rushed to the spot, moved the body for post-mortem and recovered three country-made bombs and a sickle from the spot.
Sampath served as panchayat president of Perumattunallur during the civic body’s previous term between 2006-2011 and lost to a relative, who was a DMK candidate in the subsequent poll.
Following the daylight murder, security was stepped up. The body was handed over to the family after a post-mortem on Thursday.
Speaking to Express, Kancheepuram SP C Vijayakumar said the deceased had ousted his first-cousin and personal driver Selvam from his camp a few months ago.
“Selvam joined the rival political camp, where he hatched plans to take vengeance. Subsequently, he executed the murder. All the accused will be nabbed in a day or two,” he added.
Though it appears to be a family feud, the greed for power, land and money had been the primary factors in the number of murders reported in this pocket.
The district witnessed 11 murders in 2012, in which 10 were local politicians and their aides, and saw 10 murders in 2013 thus far, of which four were of local politicians and their aides.
Earlier, senior MDMK leader Mallai Sathya visited the family members of the deceased, who staged a road roko in Perumattunallur on Thursday afternoon, seeking the arrest of the accused.