Gang slays lawyer in Madurai, 20th victim of 3-decade-old feud

Madurai: A 29-year-old feud claimed the life of a 46-year-old lawyer from Madurai city on Thursday, the 20th murder involving two groups. M S Pandian, son-in-law of V K Gurusamy, a former DMK functionary and former zonal chairman of Madurai corporation, was killed by a gang near Chinthamani. A local DMK functionary, he was doing election work when the group which came in an autorickshaw chased him down and murdered him in a house there.

Pandian was rushed to a private medical college hospital, where doctors declared he was brought dead. The body was shifted to the Government Rajaji Hospital for postmortem.

Police sources said Pandian, against whom a few murder cases are pending, had engaged himself in election work though he had been warned about a threat to his life.

There has been a long pending rivalry between Gurusamy and Rajapandi, who too is a former corporation zonal chairman, belonging to the AIADMK. A dispute, which broke out between the two in the late 1990s in connection with pasting posters has claimed 19 lives, including near and dear ones, from both camps.

A case was registered with the police and a detailed inquiry is under way. The Madurai city police have launched a search for the gang. It is suspected that the murder was staged by the henchmen of Rajapandi. However, police did not rule out the other possibilities. The incident has sent shocking waves among residents, as the chilling murder comes despite heavy security cover in the wake of the election and the Chithirai festival.

Police sources said that 11 people from Gurusamy’s camp have been murdered so far, including two of his sons-in-law. Eight people from Rajapandi camp, including his son Thoppuli Muniyasami, have been murdered. Two of Rajapandi’s key henchmen ‘Saguni’ Karthick and Muthu Irulandi were killed in a police shootout in the city outskirts in 2018.


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