TIRUNELVELI: Exactly a month after an advocate was brutally attacked with a sickle in broad daylight on the Hosur combined court premises, a 25-year-old man was murdered with a similar weapon, allegedly by a seven-member gang, near the gate of the Tirunelveli district court on Friday.
Police said the deceased, S Mayandi from Keezhanatham village, belonged to an intermediate caste and was killed by a gang of seven SC men in retaliation to the murder of SC panchayat ward member N Rajamani from the same village in 2023.
Tension prevailed at the court campus, in Keezhanatham and surrounding areas. “Mayandi had come to the court to attend a hearing in connection with a criminal case against him. After a gang tried to attack him at Annapoorna hotel near the court, he ran towards the court campus. Special Sub-Inspector Uikkattan spotted one of the accused, M Ramakrishnan (25), chasing Mayandi with a sickle,” the city police said in a statement.
“The SSI managed to detain him. However, another member of the gang caught Mayandi near the gate of the court and hacked him to death. An inquiry with Ramakrishnan revealed that Mayandi was murdered in retaliation for Rajamani’s killing,” the city police added.
On August 13, 2023, Rajamani was murdered by a gang from the intermediate caste while tending to his goats. His murder created unrest in many villages with SC residents staging protests condemning the killing. The Tirunelveli police had arrested Mayandi in connection with Rajamani’s murder. He was later detained under the Goondas Act, based on a recommendation from Superintendent of Police N Silambarasan.
Based on information from by Ramakrishnan, police arrested R Siva (19), M Thangamagesh (21), Rajamani’s brother N Manoraj (27), and A Muthukrishnan (26), all residents of Keezhanatham. Later, special teams also nabbed S Kannan (20) and K Kannan (22). “Police personnel have also been deployed to prevent any untoward incidents across the city,” police said. Upset at the violence near the court, advocates staged a protest, alleging that the police failed to prevent the murder.
Tirunelveli City Police Commissioner Rupesh Kumar Meena refuted their charges. “We usually deploy 11 police personnel at the court campus. During hearings of sensitive cases, we deploy 30 personnel,” he said.
