PMK cadre murder: Car used by assailants seized, owner held

V Ramalingam (48) of Thoondil Vinayagampettai, a PMK cadre, was hacked to death on the night of February 5 by a gang while he was returning home after work. After two days of investigations, police arrested five persons on February 7 and remanded them to custody. Three more were arrested in connection with the Ramalingam’s murder on February 9.

Inquiries regarding the car used by the gang, led the Tirubhuvanam to the owner of the vehicle, Mohammed Ibrahim (47) of Nanjikkottai road in Thanjavur. The Tirubhuvanam police on getting on a tip off that Ibrahim was hiding in Palakkarai in Tiruchy, alerted their counterparts in Tiruchy. Immediately, a team of the Tiruchy police rushed to Palakkarai and seized the car besides arresting Ibrahim. 

Following this, he was produced before the Kumbakonam magistrate court on Monday. The magistrate ordered Ibrahim to be remanded till February 20. With Ibrahim, the number of persons arrested in the PMK cadre murder case so far has gone up to 9.

Meanwhile, BJP and Hindu outfits have called for a shutdown and a rally on Tuesday to condemn the murder and appealed the public to support them. Subsequently, the Kumbakonam RDO conducted a peace talk attended by RDO Veerasamy and ASP Balachandran. BJP district president Raja, Traders Association president Sekar, Kumbakonam Tahsildhars Janakiraman and Rajeswari, as well as DSPs Senthamaraikannan and Ramachandran, took part in the talks.

ASP Balachandran told the participating members that the murder investigation is proceeding smoothly and the cadre to withdraw the protest and rally to avoid law and order issues.

However, cadre from the BJP and Hindu outfits refused to heed the appeal of the officials. An argument that followed went out of control and the cadre walked out of the peace talks meeting. 

Speaking to the reporters, BJP district president Raja said that his party had already approached the traders from the area to support the protest and that the rally would commence from Gandhi park in Kumbakonam at 11 am and would culminate at Mahamaham tank after passing through arterial roads. Raja also claimed that BJP national president Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Kumbakonam for the condolence meet.