Two-time legislator and DMK local veteran Khader Basha alias Vellaisamy Thevar (81) was murdered in his house in Kamuthi in Ramanathapuram district on Friday due to suspected personal-cum-political enmity.
The victim was in his bedroom when the assailant Dhanaseelan, who was known to him, entered the house and hacked him with a sickle.
Vellaisamy’s aides caught hold of Dhanaseelan and thrashed him with iron rods and wooden logs killing him on the spot.
Supporters of the slain politician suspected that the attack could have been a fallout of rivalry over the election of his son Muthuramalingam as president of the Melamanathi panchayat.
Police, however, maintained that the provocation for the murder was being probed.
Vellaisamy is a familiar personality in the district and had worked with DMK leaders including M Karunanidhi, K Anbazhagan and M K Stalin