Farmer murdered by brother over property dispute

Trichy: A 50-year-old farmer was brutally assaulted and murdered allegedly by his one of his brothers over a long-standing property dispute near Lalgudi in Trichy district on Wednesday. Police are searching for his brother.The deceased has been identified as A Stephenraj, a resident of Alambakkam in the Pullambadi block. His body was discovered in his farmland with severe head injuries on Wednesday morning.According to police sources, Stephenraj had ongoing conflicts with his five brothers—Arokiyasamy, Christuraj, Selvanathan, Xavier, and John Kennedy—and his two sisters, Daisy Rani and Regina Mary, regarding the division of their family's ancestral properties.Stephenraj's father, Amirtham, had earlier divided the family properties among his children, allotting separate portions of land to each while keeping a five-acre plot under joint ownership between Stephenraj, Christuraj, and Kennedy.Kennedy, dissatisfied with this arrangement, frequently argued with both Stephenraj and Christuraj. He repeatedly demanded that the five-acre land be given to him as separate ownership.On Tuesday morning, Stephenraj went to his farmland to carry out agricultural work. The next morning, he was found dead on a cot.Officers from Kallakudi police station recovered the body, and sent it to Trichy govt hospital for postmortem examination. A case has been registered under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for murder.Police suspect that Kennedy attacked Stephenraj with a sharp weapon in the early hours of Wednesday.