The Thiruvidaimarudur police of Thanjavur district arrested three more men on Saturday in connection with the murder of Ramalingam, a PMK functionary. A police officer confirmed the arrests to TNM and said that all three men were aged under 30.
Mohammed Toufiq, Mohammed Parvez and Touhid Basha are the men who have been apprehended by the police on Saturday. The police refused to divulge any more details about the case since the investigation is in progress.
These arrests come closely after five men, including a Popular Front of India (PFI) member, was arrested on Thursday in connection with the murder. However, the affiliations of the other four men were not disclosed by the police.
Ramalingam (42) was assaulted by a group of unidentified men, who chopped his hands off on Tuesday night. He was rushed to a private hospital immediately and then taken to the government hospital. However, he succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital.
Meanwhile, videos showing him arguing with a group of Muslim men allegedly earlier on Tuesday went viral on social media, which led the police to investigate if the murder was an after-effect of the argument.
Narrating the incident, parts of which were captured in Tuesday’s video, the police had told TNM that there was a habit among the Muslims in the town to visit Muslim-dominated localities in the area and preach about the religious practices and the greatness of Allah. Though the preaching groups usually restrict themselves to the Muslim-dominated areas, on Tuesday, the group had allegedly visited a street which had a good number of people from the Dalit community. Ramalingam happened to be in that area, and he raised questions to the preaching group, following which an argument broke out. The police added that the Muslim clerics had sorted out the issue on Tuesday afternoon.
Source: The News Minute