Gangster Boxer Murali murdered in Puzhal prison

The main accused Saranraj, is Murali’s cousin and the police said the attack was the fallout of previous enmity as Saranraj had earlier broken into Murali’s house and attacked his mother and sisters.

Around 9.30 am on Wednesday, Murali, who has several cases including three murders and attempted murder cases registered against him in 16 police stations, was walking towards the toilet after breakfast and was being followed by the accused Saranraj, Ramesh, Karthik, Pradeepkumar and

Joel. They allegedly surrounded him in the toilet and attacked and castrated him.

Officials, however, did not confirm what weapon was used, though police sources said they had turned the aluminium plate in which food is served into a knife. Others said they broke the tin roof of the toilets to use it as a weapon.

Hearing the cries inside the toilet, fellow inmates alerted prison authorities, who initially gave him first aid and later rushed him to Stanley Government Hospital. He was declared dead on arrival.

Until they fell apart over a family dispute, Boxer Murali of Vyasarpadi, said to have been close to gangster ‘Kakkathope’ Balaji, had friendly relationship with his relative and the main accused in his murder, Saranraj.

Police sources alleged that it was gangster Nagendran, who reportedly had previous enmity with Murali, who exploited the quarrel between the cousins to murder Murali. Pradeepkumar alias Vasu, said to be one of Nagendran’s aides, convinced Saranraj to murder Murali, the source

added.

While the police are maintaining that the murder was plotted by Nagendran, who is undergoing prison term for the last two decades and now hospitalised, his family denied the charge and claimed that Nagendran has been admitted in a private hospital in connection with a liver replacement surgery. “He had been undergoing series of surgeries. There was a surgery even on Monday,” his son claimed when this newspaper contacted him.

Murali was detained under the Goondas Act on June 5 after he was arrested in connection with a robbery case in May, Saranraj, Ramesh, Karthik, Pradeepkumar and Joel were detained under Goondas Act in March this year. Police believe Pradeepkumar could have hatched the plan after Murali was detained.

Meanwhile, though the police are floating various theories, including the invisible hand of gangster Nagendran, insiders in the gangster world are wondering why the Prison department had kept Murali and Saranraj in the same block, despite the fact both don’t see eye to eye due to previous enmity.

A few months ago, Boxer Murali had attacked Solomon, a law student, who had been part of Saranraj’s gang as ‘legal’ advisor. This led to retaliatory attack by Saranraj and gang, in which Murali, his mother and other family members were injured.

“Three months ago, Saranraj had barged into Murali’s house in Vyasarpadi and inflicted knife injuries on his family members. It is not clear why police and prison officers decided to keep both the inmates in the same building,” sources familiar with the north Chennai gangs told this newspaper.

However, a senior jail officer claimed that they were not in same block but all of them use a common toilet, where the murder took place on Wednesday. Jail sources added that they did not know about the enmity between Murali and Saranraj.

Though trial accused including those detained under Goondas Act are usually lodged in Prison-II of the Central Prison in Puzhal, sources said that about 300 of them were shifted to Prison-I, which is meant for those convicted for crimes and awarded life-term. It could be either due to the ongoing renovation work in Prison-II or shortage of space as number of persons detained under Goondas Act have increased manifold, said the source, adding that the murder could have probably be prevented if they had not been shifted to the same prison block.

This is the second murder in Puzhal prison after June 2009, when another gangster ‘Welding’ Kumar was murdered by a rival group.