TIRUNELVELI: Two brothers were stabbed to death and another injured after a quarrel erupted between two groups during a temple festival near Thisayanvilai in Tiruneveli district here on Friday night. The Thisayanvilai police have arrested three persons and detained four others in connection with the double murder.
According to sources, the clash took place during a cultural event at Oodaikarai Sudalamadaswami Temple in Karampadu village near Thisayanvilai. As part of the festival, a Karakatam folk dance was organised and the quarrel erupted between two groups amid the performance.
While Mathiraja (37) and Mathiyazhagan (43) of Kakkan Nager died in the attack on the spot, their brother Maheswaran (47) sustained stab wounds and was admitted to Tirunelveli government medical college hospital. It is learnt that the clash occurred between the victims and the sons of one Murugeswari of the region.
Upon information, the Thisayanvilai police began an inquiry and Kanniyakumari SP E Sundaravathanam (in-charge SP of Tirunelveli district) visited the crime scene. He directed police personnel to arrest the accused individuals, and sent the bodies to Tirunelveli government medical college hospital for postmortem.
Three persons — Levin, Rajkumar and Varunkumar, sons of Murugeswari — were arrested in connection with the murder, and four others were detained. Further, in the wake of the murders, security has been beefed up in the region with the deployment of a huge posse of police.
Meanwhile, a senior police officer denied the angle of previous enmity in the murder and said, "As the cultural event was going on, two groups started hurling verbal abuse against each other in an inebriated state. Amid which, members of one of the groups grabbed a knife, which was kept for chopping vegetables, and stabbed the three brothers."