THOOTHUKUDI: Two persons, accused in a double murder case, were hacked to death by a gang armed with lethal weapons here on Monday.
The deceased, identified as Kodikatturaja (24), son of Vijayapandi, and Ganesan (34), son of Gurusamy of Pudhurpandiyapuram in the outskirts of Thoothukudi, were on their way to Judicial Magistrate court in Thoothukudi.
Sources said Kodikatturaja and Ganesan were arrested in connection with the murder of former panchayat president of Pudhurpandiyapuram R Muniyasami and his friend P Muthukumar on January 23. The motive behind the murder was cited as some issues related to contesting the local body elections.
Kodikatturaja as well as Ganesan were released on conditional bail and were asked to appear before Thoothukudi Judicial Magistrate on October 25.
According to police, Kodikatturaja and Ganesan were heading to JM 1 on Monday morning along with three of their friends, when a lorry that came from the opposite direction, collided head-on with the car they were travelling at Pudhurpandiyapuram diversion.
Sensing trouble, the duo got down from the car and started running. But a few persons armed with lethal weapons stepped out of the lorry and overpowered the duo and hacked them to death.
The bodies of the deceased were sent to Thoothukudi Medical College Hospital for postmortem. Based on a complaint from Muthuselvan, the brother of Kodikatturaja, Puthiyamputhur Police have registered a case. Further investigations are on in this regard.