MADURAI: In what is suspected to be a fallout of an inter-gang rivalry, three persons, including two brothers, were hacked to death by assailants, at Jaihindpuram in the city on Friday.
Sources said that K Karuppuraj (19) and Pambu Nagaraj alias K Nagaraj (18) were brothers and had been residing at Meenambigai Nagar in Jaihindpuram. They had been working as construction labourers. During the course of their work, they developed contacts with one Appalaraja, who was a local goon and had several criminal cases registered against him. The brothers soon began rising in the ranks of the gang and incurred the wrath of a rival gang, led by one Kavathirupathi, who had suffered losses at their hands. Last year, the police named Nagaraj as one of the accused in an attempt-to-murder case, in which one Sounder belonging to Kavathirupathi’s gang was attacked.
As the brothers were always under threat, they had left for Coimbatore to let the matters cool down.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the brothers accompanied by one K Karthik (22), a resident of Gopalan Nagar, returned to the Temple City. In the afternoon, when the trio was watching TV, an eight-member gang barged into the house. The gangsters hacked the three persons to death. Though police were able to identify the bodies of Karuppuraj and Nagaraj, they were in the dark about the third victim, until his parents reached the spot and identified him as Karthik.
Sources said that the needle of suspicion pointed towards Kavathirupathi, as he had been looking for an opportunity to get back at the brothers. Further investigations are on.