THOOTHUKUDI: A 78-year-old businessman was hacked to death at Aladiyur near Eral late on Monday, allegedly due to previous enmity. Police have arrested a suspect A Mookandi (70) of the same village in connection with the case.
Sources said that Thangaraj Nadar, hailing from Aladiyur village runs a department store in Dubai. He came to his native village to attend the local temple festival 10 days ago. He is constructing a house in the village. At 8 pm on Monday, he was inspecting the ongoing construction works when Mookandi, accompanied by another person, confronted Thangaraj and hacked him to death.
Thangararj collapsed in a pool of blood and died on the spot, said sources.
Upon information, Eral police rushed to the spot and shifted the body to the government hospital for post mortem.
Preliminary investigations revealed that Thangaraj had employed Mookandi's son Kotalamuthu (28), in his shop at Dubai. Kotalamuthu died by suicide during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022. The body was not brought to India due to lockdown restrictions and Thangaraj allegedly buried the body in Dubai. As a result of this, Mookandi nursed a grudge against Thangaraj, said police sources.
Eral police registered a case and arrested Mookandi. A hunt has been launched for the second person involved in the murder.