Lawyers protest murder of advocate, relative

KARUR: An advocate and his relative were hacked to death by an armed gang at Gowndampatti near Kulithalai in Karur district over a trivial issue of distributing water for jasmine cultivation, late on Sunday night. Following the incident, panic gripped the area as the accused were yet to be arrested. S Ravichandran (32), practicing as an advocate in the district court, Trichy and his nephew S Suresh (23), running a cycle workshop were murdered by their relatives at around 10.30pm on Sunday when the duo was returning home from their farm after irrigating jasmine plants.As many as five motorcycle-borne people intercepted them and attacked them with lethal weapons. The gang fled the scene immediately after slaying them. Both the victims and murderers are residents of Gowndampatti.
According to the police, Ravichandran and his family cultivated jasmine in Mettukadu in Gowndampatti. Similarly, their relative, Kannan was also engaged in jasmine cultivation in the same area. However, the two families were at loggerheads with each other for long over irrigating the jasmine plants. The trouble had brewed from using a common channel to distribute water pumped out of a well in the area. The water was being distributed only to a farmland of Ravichandran for the past two days. This again led to a heated argument between the two. Police suspect that Kannan and his team might have taken the extreme step to murder Ravichandran and Suresh.
Upon information, Karur SP Santhoshkumar, Kulithalai DSP SM Elango and Kulithalai police rushed to the spot. Meanwhile, both the victims were brought to a private hospital in Trichy. Unfortunately, they succumbed to their injuries. The bodies were later taken to the Annal Gandhi memorial government hospital in Trichy for postmortem.
Based on a complaint from the victims' relatives, police registered a case against six people, including the main accused Kannan. A special team has been formed to nab the murderers.
DSP S M Elango told TOI that "considering the sensitivity of the case, as many as 40 police personnel led by him were deployed in the village to prevent any untoward incident."
Meanwhile, a group of lawyers from the district court, Trichy carried out a procession to demand the arrest of the killers. Ravichandran was survived by his wife Naagamani and two daughters, Geethasri and Yazhini. Suresh was survived by his pregnant wife Gowthami and a son Anguraj.