Two men, accused in a double murder case, were shot dead by the police early in the morning on Friday, January 7, near Madurantakam in Tamil Nadu’s Chengalpattu district. The police have said that the two men, who carried out two murders a day before, tried to attack the police, which is when officials opened fire in self-defence.
Addressing the media, North Zone IG Santhosh Kumar said that the two, Binu alias Dinesh and Moideen, were accused in the double murder case of two men named M Karthik alias ‘Appu’ Karthik (32) and S Mahesh (22).
When the police team that was probing the double murders caught them, Dinesh and Moideen tried to flee, attacking the police with knives and country bombs. Two policemen, head constable Suresh Kumar and Bharath Kumar have sustained injuries. After the two suspects tried to attack them, the police team opened fire in self-defence, officials say, leading to Dinesh and Moideen’s death. While two of the accused were killed in an encounter, two others — Jessica and Madhavan — have been arrested in connection with the double murder case
According to a TOI report, on Thursday night, Karthik and Mahesh — who were related to each other and worked in the vegetable wholesale market in Chengalpattu — were attacked by a three-member gang and were hacked to death with a machete. The police say that the two gangs had a personal enmity since 2018. Binu and Moideen are believed to be two of the three-member gang. The gang first hurled a country bomb at Karthik at around 7.30 pm on Thursday, and attacked him with a machete, disfiguring his face. The trio fled from there on a bike after threatening those nearby and then went to Mahesh’s home, where they attacked him as well.
After a hospital declared them dead, the Chengalpattu Town Police began a probe into their murders. Superintendent of Police (SP) P Aravindhan formed special teams of police and Dinesh and Moideen were two suspects who were caught by the police in the murder case. The police say personal enmity, believed to involve a love affair, may have been the reason for the two murders.
When the police team tried to nab the accused, the two tried to escape and were gunned down in the ensuing shootout. Further probe is underway.
(With PTI inputs)