Man hacked to death by gang; 6 arrested

Trichy: A 65-year-old man was hacked to death by a six-member gang including his relatives near Manapparai on Saturday. Manapparai police arrested all the accused.Police identified the deceased as P Kuppusamy, a native of Karumpulipatti village, and the arrested as K Pravin, 24, P Devendran, 20, of Kulithalai in Karur, K Stalin, 21, P Chandru, 22, R Manikandan, 25, and G Dinesh, 25.It has come to light that Pravin was in a relationship with a granddaughter of Kuppusamy’s sibling, residing in the same area.A few days ago, an altercation occurred between Kuppusamy and Pravin after the former learned about their relationship. Both parties filed separate complaints against each other, leading to an inquiry by the Srirangam revenue divisional officer, police said.Meanwhile, as Kuppusamy and his son Marimuthu were returning home from Manapparai on two two-wheelers near Kalingapatti on the Manapparai-Kulithalai eoad, the gang intercepted them. They attacked Kuppusamy with a machete, inflicting severe injuries leading to his death. Marimuthu attempted to defend his father but was pursued by the gang. However, he managed to escape unharmed. Manapparai police shifted the victim's body to the government hospital for postmortem.Based on a complaint from Kuppusamy’s son K Marimuthu, police arrested the six accused, who were remanded in judicial custody.