Two TN women hacked to death in alleged revenge killings that began in 2019

Two women from Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district have been found brutally murdered in what is suspected to be the continuation of a series of revenge killings that began in November 2019. The women, identified as 50-year-old A Shanmugathai and 45-year-old S Shanthi, were attacked with petrol bombs and hacked to death at Marugalkurichi, under the Nanguneri police station limits, on Saturday. A 14-year-old minor girl, who was present in the house, has sustained minor injuries and is undergoing treatment.

The series of killings started in November 2019 after Shanmugathai’s son A Nambirajan eloped with an 18-year-old T Vaanmathi in September 2019, following which the couple got married. While both Nambirajan and Vaanmathi belonged to the dominant Devar caste, the woman’s parents were against the marriage. In November that year, Nambirajan was hacked to death and beheaded. His body was found at the Kurukkuthurai railway crossing. Four persons have been killed since then, two persons in March, and two persons (Shanmugathai and Shanti) in September.

Shanmugathai, who was one of the accused in the revenge-killing case and had come out on bail only a few days ago, was beheaded by a gang of 10 men wearing masks, following which they proceeded to attack her neighbour and relative Shanthi as well. Shanmugathai’s head was found a little away from the scene of the crime.

The police suspect that the murders could have been in retaliation to the murder that took place in March this year. While Shanmugathai was arrested in connection to that case, Shanthi’s son Esakkipandi, too, was accused. The masked men reportedly first went to Shanti’s house in search of her son and when they did not find him, they attacked and killed her.

Special teams have been formed to nab the accused and they are currently on the look-out for the gang.

After Nambirajan was hacked to death in November 2019, the police started an investigation, where they found that Vaanmathi’s brother Chellasamy (28) along with a group of friends killed Nambirajan.

In March this year, two of Vaanmathi’s relatives — Arumugam (50) and Suresh (25) — were hacked to death allegedly by Nambirajan’s relatives. Police arrested Nambirajan’s family — Arunachalam and Shanmugathai, his brothers Ramaiah and Sankar and a few of their relatives, including Esakkipandi.

Speaking to TNM, Nanguneri Inspector Anto Pradeep F said the police have been taking all kinds of precautionary measures to prevent such incidents from happening. “For the past six months, we had stationed bandobast in the area, arrested and remanded those involved. Three days ago some of the accused had come out on bail. We requested them to leave town but they didn’t listen to us,” he said.

“It all started with the couple getting married and there is no communal issue here. We are trying hard to prevent such incidents from happening,” he added.