TIRUPPUR: A day after high court advocate L Muruganantham (41) was hacked to death at Dharapuram, his mother and relatives refused to accept his body and staged a protest in front of Tiruppur Government Medical College Hospital demanding an investigation by CBI.
Muruganantham of Muthu Nagar on Kotapulipalayam road in Dharapuram in the district was hacked to death near Thenmalar Matriculation Higher Secondary School on Monday.
The police have arrested R Dhandapani (65), owner of the school and the uncle of Muruganantham, and a gang of five – N Nattudurai (65) of Dharapuram, S Dakshinamurthy (29), C Nagarajan (29) of Tiruchy, K Ram (22) of Salem, and S Sundaran (26) of Namakkal – who surrendered before the Dharapuram police on Monday evening. Muruganantham’s father, Lingasamy, was also hacked to death, in 1999.
In 2003, three persons, including Dhandapani, were acquitted in that case. Sumithra Devi, the mother of Muruganantham, said, “Already, I haven’t got justice in my husband’s murder case. The perpetrators will be punished only if the CBI investigates the case.”
Meanwhile, SP Yadav Girish told TNIE that everyone involved in the murder will be arrested. “The reason behind the murder is a property dispute between Muruganantham and Dhandapani. Dhandapani is involved in this murder,” he said. A police officer said the dispute that led to the murder concerns 5.5 acres of land belonging to Dhandapani and Muruganantham near Thenmalar school.
“On Monday, Muruganantham had planned to measure the land with the surveyor. For this, he went there with his friends Raguraman and Dinesh Kumar. At that time, Dhandapani and a few others arrived there. An argument broke out, and those who accompanied Dhandapani chased and hacked Muruganantham.” he said.