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Chennai: A 57-year-old special sub-inspector (SSI) was hacked to death in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur district on Wednesday while trying to stop a family dispute, police said.
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The deceased was identified as M Shanmugavel. Police formed six special teams to look out for the suspects — Moorthy and his sons Manikandan (elder) and Thangapandi (younger) — all residents of Moongilthozhuvu near Gudimangalam in Tiruppur.
The trio lived and worked on farmland owned by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) MLA C Mahendran.
The Kudimangalam police station had received a distress call via the control room around 11 pm on Tuesday that a father and his sons were fighting on farmland, Tamil Nadu’s West Zone inspector general of police T Senthil Kumar said.
“SSI Shanmugavel, along with constable Azhaguraja, went over in a patrolling vehicle and found Moorthy injured while his two sons were fighting with him. The SSI had called for an ambulance for Moorthy. While trying to settle the dispute, the father and his two sons attacked the police,” a senior police officer said.
The two policemen tried to escape, but Manikandan allegedly hacked the SSI to death with a sickle.
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“Constable Azhaguraja and the farm’s manager Rangasamy managed to escape. The crime happened around 12:30 am. The father and sons have been absconding since then,” the officer said.
Police said that Manikandan has six criminal cases, including attempt to murder, pending against him, while Thangapandi has four cases and their father has two cases. A case of murder has now been registered against them, the officer added.
Chief minister M K Stalin announced a compensation of ₹100 lakh for the SSI’s family. “His death is an irreparable loss to the Tamil Nadu police. I have ordered for the culprits to be arrested immediately for this heinous act,” Stalin said.
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Meanwhile, the opposition AIADMK and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have criticised the DMK government, saying “even policemen in uniform aren’t safe in the state.”
“How can we accept that a police officer who went to investigate had no security?” leader of opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami said, adding that a man, yet to be identified, hung himself inside a police station in Coimbatore after filing a complaint. “Negligence has led to someone hanging themselves inside a police station? The only way Tamil Nadu can be safe is to send the DMK home,” he added.
BJP state president Nainar Nagendran accused the father and sons of being under the influence of alcohol while murdering the SSI. Blaming the state government’s alcohol sales through the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), Nagendran said, “The general public lacks safety due to rampant alcoholism and drug abuse under the DMK regime. Now, even the lives of police are not guaranteed.”
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