Gang hacks history-sheeter to death, wife ends her life

CHENNAI: A woman hanged herself at her house at Peramanur near Maraimalai Nagar in Kancheepuram district early on Saturday, hours after a gang of four men hacked her husband, a history-sheeter, to death on Friday evening, police said.
Police who identified the history-sheeter as R Tamizh Azhagan, 27, and his wife as T Neelaveni, said they had detained Pushparaj, 27, Dinakaran, 29, and Gopalakrishnan, 27, all from Peramanur, for Tamiz Azhagan’s murder.They are also picking up small-time rowdies and hired killers in the area as part of the investigation.
Tamizh Azhagan, who had 17 cases of murder, attempt to murder and kidnapping against his name, was returning home around 11.30pm when four men on motorcycles surrounded him and attacked him with knives and cleavers. Despite being hurt, he ran to a house in a bid to escape but the gang members chased him and smashed his head with rods before fleeing, a few witnesses later told police. The body was later sent to the Chengalpet Government Hospital for postmortem.
His wife Neelaveni later lodged a complaint at the jurisdictional police station, demanding a thorough probe into the murder and went home.
Late on Saturday morning, after finding that Neelaveni had not come out of her house for a long time, some of her neighbours knocked on the door, and not getting a response, called police. A team arrived, broke open the door and found the woman hanging from the ceiling. She used a sari to create a noose, police said. The body was then moved to hospital for postmortem.
Police said Tamizh Azhagan, who was said to have been involved in some questionable real estate deals, a few days ago had an altercation with members of a rival group over a building project near Kancheepuram. This, police suspect, could have led to his murder since the rival gang had an eye on the property that he was dealing with on behalf of one of its owners.