On Thursday, September 7, police opened fire on Venkatesh, one of the four accused persons, who was arrested on charges of hacking to death four people in Palladam town in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupur district. According to police, Venkatesh was shot at when he attempted to flee while he was taken for evidence collection. Four persons identified as Senthil Kumar, Pushpavali, Mohan and Rathinammal, who are related, were hacked to death on September 3, Sunday.
Venkatesh, an employee of Senthilkumar, and three other assailants, who were drunk, first attacked Senthil Kumar with a machete. The other three victims, relatives of Venkatesh, were also attacked when they attempted to help Senthil. Speaking to TNM, an officer with the Palladam police station said that Venkatesh and three other accused Chella Muthu, Iyyappan and Sonai Muthaiah alias Vishal have been arrested. They have been charged under section 302 (murder) of the IPC.
Chella Muthu was arrested on the day of the murder and Iyyappan on Tuesday, September 5. On Wednesday, Vishal and Venkatesh both surrendered at the Coimbatore city police station. But later, when Venkatesh was taken to the scene of the murder to reconstruct the crime and retrieve the weapons, he attempted to flee, Palladam police said. The police claimed that they opened fire to stop him, shooting him on both thighs. He is now under treatment at the government Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), police further added.
According to early reports, Venkatesh and the other three accused had been consuming alcohol near Senthil Kumar’s land. When the deceased objected, an altercation ensued and he was attacked. The three other victims were also brutally hacked to death when they attempted to intervene, after which the accused fled the scene.
Initially, the family of the victims had refused to accept the bodies of the victims after the postmortem examination, unless all of the accused were arrested. They had also staged a protest on Sunday demanding the same. Earlier reports said that one of the victims, Senthil Kumar, was a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary. Palladam police were however unable to confirm this.