Two history-sheeters try to settle love affair, get beaten to death

The police identified the deceased as Sudhakar (26) and Veera (24) from Venpakkam village in Ponneri, Tiruvallur, who have cases pending in at least four police stations.

The accused are D Jayaprakash (23) from Aaladu village near Ponneri, who led the attack, and R Deepan, (22), R Ranjith (22) and V Sugan (22) from Periya Colony in Aaladu village, P Samuvel (22), from Pudu Kacheri Road and J Harish Kumar (22), from Sakthi Nagar. According to the police, the history-sheeters were trying to intimidate Jayaprakash on behalf of one Gowtham, who has been pursuing a girl from the village. Jayaprakash, too, was in love with the same girl. Earlier, Gowtham and Jayaprakash had fought in front of the girl’s college.

Gowtham then sought help from Veera and Sudhakar to threaten Jayaprakash and make him back off. On Sunday evening, the duo came to the playground in Aaladu where Jayaprakash was playing volleyball along with his friends.

However, things did not go as they hoped, as the conversation quickly deteriorated into an argument and then into a fistfight. Seeing their friend being attacked, the other five joined Jayaprakash to attack Veera and Sudhakar. Finally, they picked up stones and smashed their heads, and escaped from the spot after realised they were dead. A little later, Gowtham came by to meet Veera and Sudhakar and found their bodies at the ground. He immediately alerted the local police.

Based on a complaint, the Ponneri police registered a case and sent the bodies to the Ponneri Government Hospital. All the six friends were arrested for the murder and were remanded in judicial custody.

Meanwhile, a 35-year-old man was found dead in Maduravoyal. The police identified the deceased as Muniasamy, a butcher from Ramanathapuram who was staying at a house in Bharathidasan Nagar in Maduravoyal.

On Monday morning, some residents found his body, believed to have been killed by smashing with a stone, in an isolated area in Maduravoyal.