MADURAI: The main suspect in the shooting of a young man on a bus at Sattur in south Tamil Nadu surrendered at a judicial magistrate’s court in Madurai on Thursday.Mohammed Rafique, 42, is suspected of killing the youngster Karuppaswamy in revenge for the murder of his teenaged son by the victim’s elder brothers. The Kovilpatti police had already been dealing with a complaint that Rafique had in the past tried to run over Karuppasamy’s father.
The third judicial magistrate of Madurai remanded Rafique in judicial custody till October 17.
Karuppasamy, 24, was shot dead point blank while travelling in a government bus from Nagercoil to Coimbatore yesterday. He was an ambulance driver from Coimbatore and had come to his native place Kovilpatti for Ayudha Puja, and was going back to his place of work. Having boarded the bus at Kovilpatti, he was sitting opposite the back door, which made it easy for his killer to escape.
As the bus was cruising along the four-lane road near Padanthal in Sattur around 11.30 am on Wednesday, Karuppasamy was shot in the back of the head. The gunman fled as the stunned crew brought the bus to a halt.
Cops suspect revenge bid Karuppasamy’s brothers Kanagaraj and Manthiramoorthi are accused in the murder of Mohammed Rafique’s son Abdulla, an 18-year-old college student who was hacked to death in July. Last month, Karuppasamy’s father Kandhari filed a police complaint against Rafique claiming that he had tried to tried to run him over with his car.