CHENNAI: The Kancheepuram police shot dead a 35-year-old man with criminal history near Sunguvarchatram on Saturday evening allegedly after he attacked a police officer in an attempt to escape arrest.
Police said the deceased, A Vishwanathan alias ‘Kulla Vishwa’, was a resident of Kiloy village in Sriperumbudur. Vishwa had five murder cases against him and almost 20 other cases including attempts to murder, extortion, and kidnap. He had criminal cases booked in Sriperumbudur, Oragadam, Sunguvarchatram, Manavala Nagar, Somangalam, Manimangalam, Puzhal and Thimiri police stations. He was categorised as an A+ rowdy, said the police.
Police said he had indulged in collecting ‘mamool’ from the scrap businessmen from factories nearby and ran several kangaroo courts around Sriperumbudur. A senior police officer said Vishwanathan was pursued by police personnel in connection with an investigation into a murder case. “He assaulted two police personnel with a knife to evade arrest. Sub-inspector Murali had to open fire in self-defence,” the officer claimed.
Kulla Vishwa was taken to Government General Hospital and was declared dead at the hospital.
The injured policemen were taken to Meenakshi Medical College Hospital in Sriperumbudur.ADGP Law and Order, Arun, along with senior police officers visited the injured policemen. In the past decade, several gang-related murders were reported in the region. Police officers attribute this to the business rivalry in getting scraps from factories around Sriperumbudur, Sunguvarchatram, and Oragadam.