A 40-year-old man, who was the fourth accused in the sensational Sankararaman murder case, was hacked to death in broad day light by a gang of around eight persons at KK Nagar, here on Thursday.
Police said Kadiravan (40), a resident of Sathya Garden, was attacked a few minutes after he left home for Tirupati at around 7.30 am in a car with his driver behind the wheels.
When the car reached the intersection of Kamarajar Nagar III Street and VV Giri Street in Sathya Garden, the gang members who came in two cars intercepted the vehicle.
The gang attacked Kadiravan with sickles and swords till he collapsed.
The shocked driver could do nothing to save his employer while the gang fled. The driver subsequently called up Prabha, a relative of Kadiravan and rushed him to a nearby private hospital where the doctors declared him dead on arrival.
Meanwhile, five persons Saravanan (22), Ameer (23), Rajesh (22), Madan (25), and Ramesh (27), all from Pulianthope, surrendered before a court in Thiruvottiyur later in the day in connection with the murder.
Ashok Nagar AC MM Ashok Kumar told Express that the murder could have resulted from previous enmity. The body was moved to Royapettah Government Hospital.
Kadiravan, a history-sheeter, was arrested in 2005 in connection with the murder of Sankararaman, manager of the Varadarajaswami temple at Kancheepuram on September 3, 2004. He later came out on bail. He was a close aide of Appu alias Krishnasamy, an affluent contractor-cum-businessman and the accused No 2 in Sankararaman murder case, in which Kanchi Sankaracharyas are the prime accused.
Together with Appu, Kadiravan was involved in real estate business. Earlier, an attempt to murder case was registered against Kadiravan in 2000.
Kadiravan was also suspected to have been behind the sensational murder of another history-sheeter, Chenna alias Chenna Kesavalu and his advocate Bhagat Singh in 2010 near the Poonamallee TADA court. However, his involvement in the case was not established.