10 accused arrested in panchayat president murder case

CHENNAI: Police arrested 10 men in connection with the murder of the Madambakkam village panchayat president Venkatesan on Saturday.

Venkatesan (48) of the Puratchi Bharatham party who was elected as the president of Madambakkam village panchayat was murdered by a group of men by hurling petrol bombs and attacking him with sickles near a private hospital in Raghavendra Nagar near Manimangalam.

The Manimangalam police team who rushed to the spot retrieved the body and sent it for post-mortem and registered a case to identify the killers.

On Friday night the Manimangalam police surrounded the killers near Poonamallee and they were arrested and taken into custody. The arrested were identified as Mohamed Yakub (35), Ahamed Basha (21), Mohamed Riyas (32), Mohamed Imran Khan (21), Riyasudeen (25), Sadam Hussian (24), Dinesh (26), Manimaran (25), Mohan Raj (20), Praveen Kumar (22) all of them were from Manimangalam, Guduvanchery, and Athanur.

Police said two years ago Venkatesan's supporters killed two brothers of Sadam Hussian near the lakebed in Madambakkam and Venkatesan was the mastermind behind the murder. Soon the group decided to take revenge on Venkatesan and decided to kill him. The police arrested all of them and further inquiry is on.