CHENNAI: The Periamet police arrested five people for allegedly hacking a 36-year-old man to death in Allikulam Market Complex on Saturday night.
The deceased, S Munuswamy, ran an iron scrap shop at the market complex, where one of the accused, Manikandan alias Pulimootai (27), ran a mobile spare parts shop. Both were at loggerheads following an argument.
Last week, the police had warned Manikandan after being tipped-off about ganja sale in his shop. Manikandan, who already has cases pending against him, found out that Munuswamy was the informer and he hatched a plan to murder Munuswamy along with his friends - Ashraf Ali (28), Abbas (28), Abraham alias Abi (20) and Kishore (27).
On Saturday night, Munuswamy was leaving for home when the gang waylaid him. He ran but the gang chased him and hacked him to death. On information, the police recovered the body and sent it to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital for postmortem. Meanwhile, the gang was caught during a routine vehicle check near Tiruvallur.