CHENNAI: A woman, who turned her murdered son’s friends into henchmen to exact revenge, was arrested along with the attackers for the murder of a 55-year-old auto driver in his home in Ambattur last Monday.

Though the intended targets were the sons of the deceased, Maxwell, the gang went ahead and hacked the father to death, police said.

Maxwell, a resident of Nethaji Nagar in Shanmugapuram, was resting at his home after work when the assailants came there and hacked him with weapons. His neighbours who came to check on him on hearing his screams found him seriously injured and moved him to a hospital, where he was declared as brought dead.

Preliminary investigations suggested that Maxwell was murdered for his sons' alleged involvement in a murder last year. His sons, Moses and Lawrence, were named as accused in the murder of Udhayakumar in 2022.

Police said Udhayakumar's mother, Latha, wanted to exact revenge for about a year now and had arranged money for the purpose. She reached out to Udhayakumar's friends who too were on the same page.

After learning that Moses was out on bail, the gang did a recce and plotted to murder him. On the day they went to Moses's home, only his father was there. But they went ahead with the murder.

Police arrested the accused, Yuvaraj (28), his father Nagaraj (62), Karthik (23), Vinoth (24) and Latha (51). All five of them were produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.