CHENNAI: A BJP state functionary was hacked to death by a gang after incapacitating him by hurling country-made bombs on a national highway near Poonamallee on Thursday night. The deceased has been identified as PPG Shankar, 47, state treasurer of the BJP Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe wing.
Shankar was the panchayat president of Valarpuram village in Sriperumbudur in Kancheepuram. Police said Shankar was an ‘A+’ category rowdy in the state with several cases including murder against his name. “Shankar was involved in collecting scrap materials in bulk and transporting them to the recycling units. On Thursday he had gone to Kolathur to attend a marriage function.
He was driving back home alone on the Chennai - Bengaluru National highway,” said the police officer. Around 10pm, he was waiting at the traffic junction in Varadharajapuram junction in Nazarathpet, when a gang of men in two cars waylaid him and hurled country bombs, said a senior police officer.
“The windshield was damaged and Shankar took to heels. Meanwhile, another group of men blocked him from the rear and hacked him with machetes,” he said. The ambulance crew declared Shankar dead on the spot. Nazarathpet police sent the body to the Stanley Government Hospital for postmortem.
Meanwhile nine men between the age group of 20 and 25 surrendered before the Egmore magistrate court on Friday afternoon. The accused are R Jegan, S Guna, M Sarathkumar, K Anandh, S Santhakumar, K Santhakumar, E Sanju, R Udhayakumar and A Dinesh.
Police said, S Santhakumar is a Sriperumbudur ward councillor. After preliminary investigation, police said Santhakumar and Shankar had previous enmity over taking contracts for collecting scrap materials. “The murder was to control business in the locality,” said the police officer.
In 2012, PPG Shankar’s relative Kumaran was murdered in public view. In retaliation, Shankar had murdered a panchayat president, Venkatesan, in 2016. About nine months ago, the Kancheepuram police arrested five men who were making country bombs to eliminate Shankar.
BJP slams DMK
Expressing shock over the killing of PPG Shankar, BJP state president K Annamalai said daily crimes show law and order is not under control, in the “inept DMK regime.” In a series of tweets, Annamalai said the police department is duty-bound to protect people and ensure security. “It has however been transformed into a wing to carry out the diktats of the ruling party,” he claimed.