TIRUCHY: A former panchayat president was hacked to death in Pudukkottai on Monday, and the assailants had severed the head and escaped.

It is said that on Monday, Nagaraj, a former panchayat president of Kongudipatti near Iluppur in Pudukkottai, went to drop his wife, a teacher, to the school in Iluppur. After dropping her in the school, Nagaraj was returning home.

When he was nearing Pakkudi-Periya Kudumbam Patti road, he was stopped by an unidentified gang and was attacked with lethal weapons, in which Nagaraj sustained severe injuries and fell dead.

The gang, after ensuring Nagaraj died, severed his head and escaped. On information, Illuppur police rushed to the spot, retrieved the body and sent it to the GH. The police registered a case and commenced an investigation.

The police said that there was a land dispute between Nagaraj and his neighbour, Muthu Lakshmi, who recently lodged a complaint with the police after an altercation, and the police also had registered a case, and the investigation was under way.

In such a scenario, Nagaraj was brutally murdered. The police are investigating from various angles.