TIRUVANNAMALAI: A 28-year-old man from a gang led by former Kancheepuram don Sridhar Dhanapalan's aide was brutally murdered on a moving bus at Cheyyar on Saturday.
The deceased, M Satheeshkumar, was having tea at a shop at Kanni Nagar junction in Cheyyar when a gang armed with lethal weapons encircled him before one of them attacked him, police sources said.
The man began to run and boarded a moving mini-bus. As soon as he got into the bus, the driver swerved to avoid the gang.
However, the assailants jumped across the median and damaged the windshield before barging into the vehicle, the sources said, adding that even as the bewildered passengers on board screamed and began to alight, the attackers hacked Satheeshkumar repeatedly on his head.
Senior officials including Superintendent of Police (SP) MR Sibi Chakravarthy rushed to the spot and held inquiries.
“We have formed three special teams to hold investigations and nab the gang. Preliminary inquiries revealed that eight men, all in their twenties, perpetrated the brutal murder,” Chakravarthy told Express.
He added that both the deceased and the gang members belonged to Kancheepuram. Two cases relating to attempt to murder are pending against Satheeshkumar in the Kancheepuram taluk police station, the SP said.
Additional SP Ashok Kumar and DSPs Gunasekaran, Thangamaran and Sundaram are part of the special squads.
Investigations have brought to light that Satheeshkumar, a resident of Pillaiyarpalayam in Kancheepuram, was part of a gang led by Dinesh who was one of the main aides of Kancheepuram don Sridhar Dhanapalan who died under mysterious circumstances in Cambodia two years ago, another official said.
Dinesh and another gangster Thanika had a running feud over who would succeed Sridhar. Last year, Dinesh’s men, including Satheeshkumar, made an attempt to murder an advocate, Siva, who belonged to Thanika’s gang.
The official said police suspected that Thanika’s men may have got rid of Satheeshkumar to avenge the attack on Siva. However, it has to be ascertained through investigations, he added.
The deceased, along with his parents, had recently moved to Cheyyar due to the feud between Dinesh and Thanika.