KARAIKAL:Former Assembly Speaker and five-time MLA VMC Sivakumar was hacked to death at Neravy in broad daylight by a seven-member gang on Tuesday. The incident, suspected to be a revenge killing, took place around 11 am when Sivakumar and his gunman arrived at the First Main Road, where construction of a marriage hall was in progress. The assailants came on motorcycles and restrained Sivakumar’s gunman, P Premnath, of Puducherry police, at knifepoint, before hurling bombs and hacking Sivakumar.
According to sources, Sivakumar used to visit the site daily to oversee the construction work. On Tuesday, while the gunman waited outside, Sivakumar and his supporters went in. Within minutes, a group of three hurled a country-made bomb on Sivakumar’s car and held Premnath and the driver at knifepoint. As Sivakumar’s supporters rushed out, a gang of four entered the premises from the rear entrance and hurled a bomb at Sivakumar. But Sivakumar escaped as it did not explode. Following this, the gang hacked him to death. While escaping, the assailants hurled two more bombs at a liquor outlet, reportedly owned by Sivakumar.Personnel from Single Digit Finger Print Bureau (SDFPB) of Nagapattinam and Dog Squad of Karaikal gathered evidence and secured the unexploded bombs.
Sivakumar faced threat to life
Following threats to his life after the murder of liquor baron Radhakrishnan alias Ramu, on January 2013, Sivakumar was provided police protection. This was not withdrawn even after he lost the 2016 Assembly polls. In July 2013, Ayyappan, one of the persons accused in Ramu’s murder, was hacked to death in Neravy when he was out on conditional bail. In April, 2015, Ramu’s first wife was hacked to death near Sirkazhi.